Have been watching, and enjoying, Saratoga racing on the TV. They, have a strip on the bottom if the screen updating odds on cutrrent and upcoming races, scratches, track condition…I’m good with that.
But, they add something like "Mellon turf rail 27’, inner turf rail 18’. " ummm…say what? Somebody enlighten me? Obviously some kind of measurement but…
findeight, I believe that ‘setting’ is how far inside the actual inside rail of the course is. The rail on the turf course is “adjustable” so on a single turf course, you might be able to race 2-3 “lanes” by just setting the inner rail further away from the actual fixed “rail”. This gives parts of the turf course a “rest” to allow the turf to grow back in.
I believe the the gate is adjusted so the distance is the same, but the turns will be different as the rail is set out.
If anyone knows different, I’d love to also learn 
Interesting as I was wondering just a few days ago if the gate is adjusted to make the overall distance the same to measure for race/course records… so my answer is just a guess but I think a reasonable one 
Thanks…I kind of figured it was the adjusted track width and the lanes created, like grooves on a NASCAR track, need to know how many cars or horses abreast you can fit in. You post some other interesting questions there though.
Do other major tracks do this too and I just never noticed? Or is it unique to the Spa?
On the subject of yesterday’s racing, I have forgotten the name of a nice filly/mare that walked out of the gate yesterday on her knees, was eased ( quite correctly) and vanned off, she appeared to be in one piece and moving when pulled up at the head if the stretch but they never updated. Forgot the name of the race too, the 9th I think, the ??? Colony. Wonder if she just banged herself up or really hurt herself.
If you didn’t catch it, hell of a stretch duel in that race between a smaller mare called Blue Prize with a new jock, Graham IIRC, and the much bigger, prohibitive favorite under Ortiz…,who about had a heart attack when these two unexpectedly hooked up and really gutted it out all the way down the lane when he was looking for a much easier trip. He said he was riding too short too, didn’t expect it to matter so just went with it. He could hardly get his breath on the way to the circle in mounted interview out he was so winded. Might have had a word with the valet…
It would depend on the width of the turf course if you see one rail or an adjustable rail if a track does this or not (so not just Saratoga but track dependent). Some tracks actually have 2 different turf course (Saratoga). The inner turf course they often run an over-fences race as race 1 on the card
IMO, most of the time, the horse is “vanned off” unless getting up isn’t really an option 
. I sometimes suspect the horse is vanned off just so they aren’t euthanized on the track in front of the spectators (which does make sense). In almost all cases, there is no update on the horse’s condition once they get back to the barn. If TVG (at least that is who I watch) has someone on-site that is available, they might go back to the barn for an update.
High visibility races like the Derby will have an AVMA (I think) vet who can explain in english what the injury is and possible outcome. Yes, all races have vets that follow the race down the track. Most of the time, those vets aren’t interviewed.
Oh, for sure if they can get it into the trailer without a winch, they will ASAP… But was under the impression they are using the trailer, which is usually just sitting somewhere near the head of the stretch anyway, as a precaution more these days…sure wouldn’t want it limping past the stands even if it’s not life threatening and no need to make them walk on it if there’s an alternative.
Just wondered if anybody happened to know offhand, nice mare with decent record. Results just have her 6th, remarks " made it into stretch" did get the name, Romantic Vision…I think. Race was the Summer Colony, minor stakes race.
Here’s the results chart from equibase if you haven’t seen it already. It says Romantic Vision “stumbled badly at the break.”
http://www.equibase.com/static/chart…082017USA9.pdf
At five, she is still owned by her breeder, the board chairman of Churchill Downs, Inc., and she is a classy mare who placed second in the Grade I La Troienne Stakes earlier this year. I’ll bet her connections are taking good care of her.
I also found this link for a video of that race. I thought it was pretty exciting too.
http://www.drf.com/news/verves-tale-…-colony-stakes
At 03:20 there is a front angle which shows Romantic Vision’s stumble quite clearly.
Now I remember the stumble which was pretty bad and glad to see the jock stayed on
One thing to keep in mind is that the jocks do have an obligation to “try” to push their horse and win and will often keep going when most of us would pull up if we were riding in a show or just for fun. The betting public deserves the best effort possible. Having said that, if the jock feels the horse isn’t going right, yes, they will pull up. In this case, the jock must have felt something as Romantic Vision was wide on the turn and then eased at the top of the stretch. I didn’t see any uneven steps but the jock must have felt something.
Saw another race in the last few days, can’t remember what day or where, when the horse took, to me, a visibly awkward step down the stretch followed by a pretty choppy gait. Jock didn’t pull up until after the wire at which point he pulled the horse up reasonably quickly and hopped off. TV announcers made a comment about the choppy gait and when I replayed the stretch run, I could see the bobble where it started. I was actually a bit surprised the jock didn’t pull up until after the wire as the horse sure looked uneven to me.
What @Where’sMyWhite said.
They move the inner rail on the turf course almost everywhere. You will often see them mention something about a temporary rail when you read the chart for a turf race, it’s usually listed next to the run up.
The reason is that turf gets destroyed easily, especially in our little bull pens where horses hug the rail around tight turns.
Saratoga has two turf courses, which is why they gave two numbers.
I wish it would become standard practice for race tracks to put out a statement and a follow up statement after every horse is vanned off or who breaks down. It would do a lot for public relations and could be done in 5 seconds on Twitter.
At the reputable tracks, they van horses off as a precautionary measure, so it does not necessarily indicate a severe injury, just that the horse wasn’t quite right.
Thanks guys, learn something new on here all the time. That poor mare was on both knees, little worse then what you normally see, wonder if she grabbed herself coming out…didn’t see anything wrong with just letting her gallop out, did not appear to be in any distress, trailer was sitting at the head of the stretch anyway.
Other than I don’t “twitter”
This I would completely agree. I could see “in the old days” not going into what happened to horses vanned off (since euthanized on track is usually pretty obvious ). Now since tracks pretty much all have live feeds for all their races (TVG doesn’t show every single race at every single track on TV) the “spectators” for the track feeds are, I would guess, primarily bettors and others in the racing industry. There is awareness that horses do break down and not all injuries are survivable. I know that I would like someplace to go for updates, both on the jocks (when there is a fall) and the horses.
I’ve seen catastrophic injuries where I could guess what happened and what will happen but often as not, the horse is a DNF with nothing obvious. I’d like to hear that the horse was vanned off as a precaution or if there was some soft tissue injury or ??
I do care about the jocks as well and like hearing they are ok. When they hop up right away, you can guess they are ok, but some you can tell they really got their bell run. Don’t need the details but ‘ok’ is fine. Sometimes you just have to guess when said jock is taken off their mounts for the rest of the day.
The people ambo follows the race around the track, the vet usually does not. Most of the ambos are contracted and not track employees and the track does not own the ambo.
Depending on the track, there is one or more state vet positioned around the track during the race.
NY Gaming Commission keeps a breakdown, death, injury, and incident database. Romantic Vision is not listed on the database for that race on the 20th. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t vanned off, just that she didn’t have an injury that must be reported. Unchained Melody was running in the Alabama on the 19th and was eased and vanned off. That is also not on the database. In her case, her trainer (or one of his employees) posted on Twitter that she was not injured and is physically fine.
That’s great to hear, hopefully she just skinned her knees.
FWIW, depending on the track, I’ve seen 2 vehicles following the field around… one appears to be human/medical while the other is often a pickup. My assumption was the pickup was a vet…
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