What type of horse does better on polytrack- a closer, a stalker, or a speed horse?

Question

What type of horse does better on polytrack- a closer, a stalker, or a speed horse?

Answer 1

last year after they installed the polytrack at Keenland they ended a 15 year bias of the worst front end inside post large percentage of favorites landing since los alamitos started running tbs (you can look it up, inside post, front speed at any distance was almost a lock to get to the wire, and lots of favorites landed with that bias)...when the poly track started favoring closers, it got so bad that  the beyer guru andy beyer wrote several articles blasting the surface because his precious beyer speed numbers were made worthless , and his claim that speed breeding which we held high for so long could be made obselete ( some of which i never understood...how a 25 dime maiden claimer could ever run a 95 beyer breaking maiden when he never ran much past 80 in numerous outings ...then continued running low 80 beyers afterward with slow times to boot... or how all the handicappers really believe the beyer numbers can find the best possibilities for win or exotic candidates when all it does is drive the chalk into the ground...and never finds good longshots...they can keep beyers goofy system) anyway...a lot (a disproportionate amount) of horses shortening up from routes and stalkers or closers on the grass came to the poly and ran bang up...this year the speed is playing a little more fair but only a small percentage of speed horses got to the wire first on the poly...all ages, both sexes, all levels...mostly closers...and when that started we jumped the bias and cashed a lot of nice tax tickets by boxing or keying closers...now it is a little different when the track is wet, and all the surfaces differ slightly, which I believe has to do with location, relative humidity, etc...turfway park has poly (which gives closers a chance when wet)  woodbine has poly, arlington I believe now has a synthetic surface, Hollywood has cushion track (which also plays more fair and Ive seen closers do better than recent years on the hard dirt surfaces there, and soon (next year there will be synthetic on the Santa anita and Golden Gate tracks) we will see a breeders cup run on poly...(08 Santa Anita...see you there!)...all in all Im inclined to think that closers or good stalkers make out better, especially if there is more than one good front runner to keep the other speed honest... the poster below me is correct, there are at least 3 or 4 different compositions of synthetic track, turfway has poly as does keenland, hollywood has cushion and the tapeta is going in golden gate in the bay area this fall for next years racing...

Answer 2

My good friend is a jockey here in Southern California, he has told me that Hollywood Parks track changes depending how much water the track crew puts on it in the morning before the races. He told me that one day speed will rule the day and the next horses come from 20 lengths off the lead. I think these racetracks need to be implemented through out the country not only for the safety of horse and rider but for the gamblers like us to have an even playing ground.

Answer 3

It's still too early to tell......they (the top Handicappers) are still trying to figure out just how to handicap on the polytrack. If you watched any races at Keenland, you'd think that speed was the way to go. But there were several horses who basically threw out the race in which they didn't do well on the polytrack.....(ie Hard Spun) Not sure if this helps but hey let me know if you find out something!

Answer 4

a stalker, because he has a shot regardless of what type of horse the track is favoring...

Answer 5

GREAT question! It seems each track is different right now. And it seems like where the track is located has a lot to do with how the horses run. Woodbine is having problems with their Polytrack in the cold ( as is Turfway), Hollywood is having problems with their wax in the Cushion Track. I haven't really reached a conclusion ( meaning I'm hit or miss with my handicapping...LOL!)

Arlington seems to favor the horses that come from out of the clouds. I haven't been able to watch Arlington until this year... Kudos to them for saving our horses!

Can't wait to see how Del Mar plays out next week.

Answer 6

I'm going to assume that you are using Polytrack as generic for any of the several artificial track surfaces-- Polytrack is just one, others being Tapeta and Cushion Track.  Each one is a bit different, as they use different proprietary mixes of materials and sub-surface preparation methods.

I think that the jury is still out on this question.  As several people who responded have indicated, the artificial track surfaces have much less throw-back during races, which makes a difference.  They are also supposed to be much more resilient than normal dirt tracks, less tiring for horses to run on.  They are also supposed to eliminate biases for speed or the inside route, and are supposed to be more consistant, day in and day out, than a dirt surface is-- although the jury is still out on that one, as track superintendants and the tech support people with each artificial track company work out the details on how to maintain the surfaces (i.e., when they need to add more of the wax-based polymer, when they need to make additions of materials to replace materials that break down, how they "groom" the surface and sub-surface and how variances in temperature affect the tracks).  I think that it's probably going to take a couple of years, minimum, and some tweaking by the maintenance people and the support people from the companies that installed the tracks to figure out the issues.

I think now a more cogent question is how do horses coming from conventional track surfaces adapt to artificial surfaces, and then when they have to transition back to conventional surfaces, what does that do to performance.  I think that's where you're going to find some real inconsistancies, and maybe some whopping big payoffs.  It's just a hunch, but I think horses that go from racing on arttificial surfaces back to racing on conventional surfaces are going to be at a distinct disadvantage the first couple of times they make that transition.

We're in somewhat of a transitional period right now, with tracks making the conversion to artificial surfaces and with maintenance issues on the artificial surfaces being worked out on a case-by-case basis.  I don't think your question can be answered with any large degree of confidence just now.

Answer 7

closers fare better on polytracks.

Answer 8

Having watched racing on Polytrack for many years over here in GB, I'd have to say that there doesn't seem to be any real bias.  I have seen horses win from front-running and coming from off the pace.

The main advantage to Polytrack, apart from putting less stress on the horses legs, is that there is little or no kickback, so this will encourage more horses to come from off the pace.

I know that your style of racing differs from ours - as a rule your jockeys tend to try to front-run, where-as ours are more tactical and like to drop in and let someone else set the pace - but you will probably find that as people grow acustomed to the new surface you will find more and more European horses coming over and racing styles will evolve.