Just a follow-up to a conversation I had (at too great length) with Michael D a while back-- I would like to point something out not on the question of whether horses are getting faster, but that of whether tracks are changing. In this case, my comment is not about cushion depth, but soil content.

Take a look at the times yesterday at Santa Anita, and those of about a month ago, the last time the track was wet. They are blazingly fast-- for example, a 3yo starter allowance filly (with a previous top of 11 1/2) went 1:08:18 en route to a 1:22 4/5ths final time. Now, this filly and all the others who ran fast are neither Ghostzapper nor Dr. Fager. What happened is that the track got a lot faster when it got wet.

It used to be that the tracks out west were very fast when dry, and got very slow when wet (Turf Paradise a decade or so ago being a very extreme example). Now they often get faster when wet, and without even asking I'm pretty sure I know why, even if those taking care of the tracks haven't been there long enough to know, or aren't willing to talk about it-- it's what Porcelli told me happened at the NYRA tracks years ago. They changed the soil content-- tracks with a lot of clay in them (think baseball infield) are fast when dry, but get very slow when wet (think muddy field), and take a long time to dry. Tracks with a lot of sand are slower when dry (think beach), and get faster when wet(think beach nearer the water).

Again, this is not to reopen the "Are they getting faster" debate-- this is strictly a comment about track speed, not horse's speed.



TGJB