Good question, complicated answer. I didn't say Belmont favors speed when it gets wet, but yes, it gets faster.

I only started investigating the "why" of all this stuff a year or so ago, but Elliot Walden told me a few years ago that CD had gone to more sand some years before, then increased the clay percentage again in 01-- he said you could see the difference in the color of the track. All things being equal, the more sand, the more the track will speed up with water (and not necessarily a lot of water). But even though one track may have a LOWER percentage of sand compared to another track, it may still have enough sand in it that it gets faster with water-- although it might not get as much faster as another track under the same circumstances.

But all that aside, all things are not equal. On the infamous Chilukki debut day, rain was forecast, and the track was sealed in the morning. Chilukki ran in the first, over a sealed dry track. The track was opened for the second, still dry, then rain hit. The third (and maybe fourth, I don't remember) were run over a wet unsealed track, then it was sealed again, so the rest of the card was run over a sealed track that had water in it. The track speed was jumping all over the place.

The point being-- a lot will depend on what they do with the track in anticipation (or not) of the rain. If they seal it, it won't matter as much what the composition is when the rain hits.

Bottom line-- I can't answer your question in advance. I'll know how fast it is by how fast the horses run.



TGJB