LADY ELI

[snaffle1987]

um… The Breeders Cup turf is 1 1/2 miles. The Smithwick Steeplechase at Saratoga is over 2 miles. The Bowling Green Stakes is 1 3/8. The Fasig -Tipton Waya is 1.5 miles. Breeders Cup Filly and Mare is 1 1/4, Turf Classic at Belmont is 1.5 miles, Man O War Stakes is 11 furlongs, Manhattan Handicap is 10 furlongs, Sword Dancer is 1.5 miles, United Nations is 11 furlongs,

Perhaps the regularly run, daily turf races are of shorter distances. Besides; this isn’t a topic of debate on dirt vs turf. Lady Eli is a turf mare; you wouldn’t breed her to a dirt stallion just because that’s what is popular.

[LaurieB]

Not entirely germaine to the discussion of Lady Eli, but lots of people think they want a turf horse–until they try to run one.

Racing secretaries write 10 times as many dirt races as turf races. Not because the turf races won’t fill but because, in the US, tracks are all about protecting their turf. Dirt is renewable. Turf isn’t. With a horse like Lady Eli, you can run whenever you want, wherever you want. But owners with average turf horses (ie, allowance level–if you have a grass claimer you might as well just give up) struggle all year to find and get into appropriate races.

The typical maiden race going a mile on the turf will draw double the entries that can run. If your horse doesn’t get in, you have to wait a month for a race with similar conditions to cycle around again. When dirt maidens way overfill, additional races are added to the overnights. After all what racing secretary doesn’t like full fields? Short answer: someone who has to protect the turf.

Twice in recent history we have shipped a horse to Keeneland, then shipped out again at the end of the meet without ever getting into a race. And our experience is not unusual. Then too, a Palm Beach pointed out, heaven forbid it rains. Turf races come off the turf. Or sometimes the turf is hard as concrete. Depending on where in the country you’re racing, a mid-level turf horse who is sound and ready to run, might find itself with only six or seven opportunities to race in an entire year. The career of a grass horse is much harder to manage than that of one who likes dirt.

[Where_sMyWhite]

Good discussion and LaurieB thanks for bringing up the lack of conditions for turf racing.

If one has a nicely performing turf mare with a “good” (whatever that is ) pedigree, do you cross with a quality dirt stallion or go for a quality turf stallion and perhaps throw Europe into the mix, both with providing the stallion and later on for the racing offspring?

From a strictly personal side, I love watching turf over dirt racing. I really love watching SA’s ‘down the hill’ turf course.

Loving watching all the European turf racing that TVG carries in the mornings… both flat and over fences.

[snaffle1987]

I LOVE watching European turf racing. SO much excitement!

[Palm_Beach]

@snaffle1987

um… The Breeders Cup turf is 1 1/2 miles. The Smithwick Steeplechase at Saratoga is over 2 miles. The Bowling Green Stakes is 1 3/8. The Fasig -Tipton Waya is 1.5 miles. Breeders Cup Filly and Mare is 1 1/4, Turf Classic at Belmont is 1.5 miles, Man O War Stakes is 11 furlongs, Manhattan Handicap is 10 furlongs, Sword Dancer is 1.5 miles, United Nations is 11 furlongs,

Perhaps the regularly run, daily turf races are of shorter distances. Besides; this isn’t a topic of debate on dirt vs turf. Lady Eli is a turf mare; you wouldn’t breed her to a dirt stallion just because that’s what is popular.

Your original post was, " Turf horses frequently run at distances of 1.5 miles or greater (1.5 miles is the distance of the Belmont stakes and its the longest dirt race in the country)." Maybe you were lumping steeplechase and hunt meets in with the flat tracks? Although I don’t know many people who breed specifically for those events, and I don’t know why Lady Eli’s breeders would hope that if her offspring can’t win on the flat then they will have a career over fences. And the purses in Europe are awful unless you happen to have a stakes level horse, even then, they don’t compare to what purses are over here.

One of the issues with breeding for distance is that you might end up with a plodder. Yeah, he can go 1.5 miles, just not real fast. There is so much genetic luck involved in breeding that even if the “perfect” match is picked for Lady Eli, chances are, she won’t replicate herself. Look at Zenyatta, and they aren’t even trying to pigeonhole her into turf breeding.