Polytrack offers jockeys new challenge

By: JEFF NAHILL - Staff Writer | Sunday, July 15, 2007 9:37 PM PDT ∞

The Blue Grass Stakes is one of the top preps on the road to the Kentucky Derby, but this year it proved to be a poster child for what can be good and bad about Polytrack, which the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has installed.

The 1 1/8 mile race at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., on April 14 saw the top five horses finish within two lengths of each other, including eventual Derby winner Street Sense, who finished second that day.

What the race also showed was how jockeys can get the wrong idea about a race track surface. The Polytrack had been playing to horses that liked to come from behind, so jockey Edgar Prado sent 10-1 long shot Teuflesberg out in fractions of 26.12 seconds, 51.46 and 1:16.65. They were pedestrian, to say the least.

Horses that get an easy lead like that should win. Prado finished fifth.

"There's something wrong with that," said jockey Richard Migliore, who will be riding his first Del Mar meeting beginning Wednesday on the new $9 million Polytrack.

While trainers are the ones who get their thoroughbreds fit and ready to run, it is the jockey who controls the race. And that will be the key in the first days of Polytrack at Del Mar.

"I'll be watching the jocks real close to see who gets it and who doesn't," said Carlsbad's Jon Lindo, a horse owner and handicapper. "You see a guy like Rene Douglas at Arlington Park (in Chicago) and he has it figured out. He waits a little longer than everybody else."

Defending Del Mar riding champion Victor Espinoza agrees with Lindo.

"The pace is a little bit slower (on Polytrack)," said Espinoza, who rode at Keeneland for several stakes engagements. "I personally don't think you will see 21 and 43 (seconds) anymore. The only thing you are going to change on Polytrack is the time. They are going to be a little bit slower. You have to be a little bit patient, and I'm ready for that."

Migliore is ready, too, but he is a bigger fan of Hollywood Park's Cushion Track than Polytrack.

"I'm a big a fan of the synthetic surfaces in general," Migliore said. "The impression they give is that it is better for the horses. I think the racing is very fair with it.

"The difference between cushion and poly is that poly seems like it can be a bit more biased. Like at Keeneland, most of that meeting you couldn't win if you were on the lead or didn't have any speed. It seemed like the last run on the outside was winning all the races. The week they had the sale you had to have speed to win. I think it's a track that can be manipulated and to have a bias. I don't think that is fair to the betting public or the horsemen. I think Cushion Track you can win from anywhere. The best horse seems like it gets the best chance to win.

"Obviously, there will be a learning curve. Arlington (Park) has Polytrack and there doesn't seem to be a bias at all. I think it has a lot to do with how the track is maintained than the actual surface. I will be curious to see how Del Mar plays and we'll all have to get a handle on that."

Espinoza prefers Polytrack to other synthetics.

"I think the horses run better and it's safer for the horses, also," Espinoza said. "It's totally different than just riding regular dirt.

"I rode it in Keeneland. The horses seem to have more confidence to run on Polytrack. I think it helps them a lot to be safe.

"I think it's a big difference (between cushion and poly). It's hard to tell right now because at Hollywood Park they didn't do a very good job (of maintaining it). They treated it like dirt, not like a synthetic track. The first four weeks of the meet it was great. It was unbelievable and then it was not that good. I personally like Polytrack better. It's just much better for the horses."

One idea Migliore and Espinoza agree on is that you shouldn't change a horse's running style.

"You're striving to follow a trainer's instructions," Migliore said. "A natural speed horse, how do you change his style to fit a race track? You can't do that overnight. It just doesn't happen. You can't just say, 'Today we are going to take back.' Some horses don't rate. And, vice versa, if a horse has no speed, how do you put speed into him?

"That's why I've been a big fan of Hollywood Park's race track. You can let a horse play to its natural strength, whether it is closing or laying close."

Said Espinoza: "I don't have to change my style of riding on the Polytrack. Horses are horses and it's tough to change their style of running, especially with older horses. With younger horses you can teach them. I have to ride the way they like to run.

"I am very excited to get there (to Del Mar). It's one of the places I have more real luck. I'm ready for that and ride every horse I can.

"They should have Polytrack everywhere."

Contact staff writer Jeff Nahill at (760) 740-3550 or jnahill@nctimes.com.