Mahoning Valley - never saw this one before

[Tom]

Funny thing - 1st race, late change.
Distance changed from 6 to 5-1/2 furlongs.
Must be more than "muddy" today.


Never seen that one before.

[lamboguy]

Mahoning's first race was a 6 furlong event, with zero minutes to post they changed it to 5 1/2.

[cj]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

Mahoning's first race was a 6 furlong event, with zero minutes to post they changed it to 5 1/2.

I've seen it before. I remember CT having to change 4.5f to 4f due to the chute being frozen or different than the rest of the track. Think I've seen it all by now. I even remember TuP moving races off dirt to turf.

[lamboguy]

Originally Posted by cj

I've seen it before. I remember CT having to change 4.5f to 4f due to the chute being frozen or different than the rest of the track. Think I've seen it all by now. I even remember TuP moving races off dirt to turf.

wow, i must admit i have never heard of a race coming off the dirt and going to the turf. that one is quite a head-scratcher.

[JustRalph]

Amazing.......

[onefast99]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

wow, i must admit i have never heard of a race coming off the dirt and going to the turf. that one is quite a head-scratcher.

so the trainer has no idea the race was being moved to the turf from the dirt, the owner, the bettors everyone involved was just ok with this? And to top it off I bet the racing office said if you scratch you will get 10 days...amazing...

[Saratoga_Mike]

Originally Posted by cj

I've seen it before. I remember CT having to change 4.5f to 4f due to the chute being frozen or different than the rest of the track. Think I've seen it all by now. I even remember TuP moving races off dirt to turf.

Yes, it happened a number of times in the fall of 2004. I believe the chute aree wasn't draining properly - oddly, I believe it was right after they paid to have a new track installed with better drainage.

[Fager Fan]

Originally Posted by onefast99

so the trainer has no idea the race was being moved to the turf from the dirt, the owner, the bettors everyone involved was just ok with this? And to top it off I bet the racing office said if you scratch you will get 10 days...amazing...

Why do you assume all that instead of assuming it was the same as happens when moving from turf to dirt?

[cj]

Originally Posted by Saratoga_Mike

Yes, it happened a number of times in the fall of 2004. I believe the chute aree wasn't draining properly - oddly, I believe it was right after they paid to have a new track installed with better drainage.

I remember it happening even in the 80s. We'd call it Shenandoah South or something like that.

[lamboguy]

Originally Posted by Fager Fan

Why do you assume all that instead of assuming it was the same as happens when moving from turf to dirt?

when horses run on turf they all run with queens plates, on the dirt they run with toe grabs. when you make the move like that, a bettor is now betting on the blacksmith instead of the horse.

[AlBundy33]

I remember that happening at Beulah every so often for the reasons stated above.

[Jeff P]

Back in the 1980's I lived in Phoenix and made it to Turf Paradise most weekdays and almost every Sat and Sun.

The dirt surface back then had a lot of clay in it. To say it didn't handle water would be an understatement.

You almost never see it these days because (in my opinion) most tracks cancel at the drop of a feather...

But remember the letters HY for track condition heavy?

Phoenix doesn't get a lot of rain to begin with. Whenever it rained more than about three quarters of an inch the Turf Paradise dirt surface would become this deep and sticky bog. Imo, the letters HY didn't begin to describe it. Not the kind of stuff you'd want to make your horse race in unless you knew going in he could handle it.

I recall being there one Sunday afternoon sometime in the mid 1980's -- and hearing the track announcer cut in and say - not a direct quote but me paraphrasing:

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please? The jockeys have voted not to ride the remaining dirt races for today's card due to unsafe track conditions.

HOWEVER, rather than cancel the remaining races for today's card:

The jockeys HAVE instead agreed to ride the remaining races for today's card on the TURF COURSE.

Therefore: All remaining races for today's card will be conducted on the TURF COURSE!

At some point later on that afternoon - the thought occurred to me how cool it was (both from a betting perspective and an aesthetics perspective) to have EVERY race conducted on the turf course.

I also remember thinking that if they were going to take the races off the dirt and run them on the turf course:

I wish it would rain more often!


-jp

.

[cj]

Originally Posted by Jeff P

Back in the 1980's I lived in Phoenix and made it to Turf Paradise most weekdays and almost every Sat and Sun.

The dirt surface back then had a lot of clay in it. To say it didn't handle water would be an understatement.

You almost never see it these days because (in my opinion) most tracks cancel at the drop of a feather...

But remember the letters HY for track condition heavy?

Phoenix doesn't get a lot of rain to begin with. Whenever it rained more than about three quarters of an inch the Turf Paradise dirt surface would become this deep and sticky bog. Imo, the letters HY didn't begin to describe it. Not the kind of stuff you'd want to make your horse race in unless you knew going in he could handle it.

I recall being there one Sunday afternoon sometime in the mid 1980's -- and hearing the track announcer cut in and say - not a direct quote but me paraphrasing:


At some point later on that afternoon - the thought occurred to me how cool it was (both from a betting perspective and an aesthetics perspective) to have EVERY race conducted on the turf course.

I also remember thinking that if they were going to take the races off the dirt and run them on the turf course:

I wish it would rain more often!


-jp

.

Aqueduct should have used the HY or SL track designation this year at least a few times. It was as slow as any track I've seen in 30 years.

[Jeff P]

1:44 and change for 1 Mile?...
1:28 and change for 7F?...
1:23 and change for 6.5F?...
1:14 and change for 6F?...

All on a track labeled fast.

Are you suggesting those times may have been produced by a track surface that was something other than fast?



-jp

.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by Jeff P

...
I wish it would rain more often!


-jp

.

Yup, those were actually mostly really fun days at the end of what was generally some really dismal days of rain and muck. Like some kind of weird day-off at work sort of day.