In the past, I've been very skeptical of the Polytrack panacea, however, after wagering on Woodbine and Turfway recently, I have to say I'm very impresseed at the fairness of the surface.

My best advice is to handicap the races just like they look without any preconcieved bias. Inside/out/speed/closers, it does not matter. The best horse usally wins.

I think people are going to be very happy if they give it a chance.

A few key points - horses MUST be fit as it is a tiring surface. Look especially for horses who've trained well over it. Though Keenland is a short meet, a very solid angle is a horse who runs first time polytrack and doesn't bounce from previous numbers, they usually improve dramatically second time. Horses with good action, efficient movers, do very well on Polytrack.

It's a very forgiving surface and most horses will perk up on it noticeably. Of course, times will be MUCH slower so note that also. One note I'm interested in looking into is horses who train on Polytrack and run on conventional tracks, my guess is they will do very well, but there seems to be a limited amount of examples.

I can't wait till Southern Cal goes all Polytrack. Hollywood this fall should be terrific with their super grass course and Polytrack. I wish Santa Anita would get moving faster then they are.

Bottom line, it's a great help for the ailing thorobred industry. There is no reason for anyone to worry about this trend. Give it a try, observe some races, tread lightly at first. You won't be sorry.