Probably will go down as one of the more confusing and controversial figure-making days of the year.

Interesting piece by Steve Crist on DRF.com discussing LITF which seemed to downplay the performance because of the poor pace figure. Can't really disagree with anything he said regarding the pace figure. A lot of what he said was previously discussed here in the "Speed is Speed, or is it" string. Beyer on the other hand didn't hold back and assigned the race one of best sprint figures of the year a 116 while giving the other two WUD and ME around 107.

At least that is what it was the last time I looked. In the Hollywood Gold Cup DRF Form Lava Man had a 112 in his prep then after he ran off the screen in the Gold Cup he got a 120 and then his prep suddenly got faster, a 116. Check the DRF leaderboard and you will see what I mean.

As far as LITF goes there was definately gusting wind that day. Primarily coming from the south, which was down the backstretch. There were also showers but none from the time they ran the Azaela until the Carry Back.

Did Calder scrap or adjust the track, who knows. However it was a little unusual that this race was scheduled as though it was the main attraction. I personally think LITF got away with a soft pace and "freaked".