Question About Track Configuration

[chr...@iwon.com]

This may seem like a dumb question, but here goes.

A story in today’s NYTimes stated that Gulfstream’s track ‘was
lengthen to a mile and an eighth, which meant Gulfstream could no
longer hold races at a mile and a sixteenth, and popular that has made
the Florida route to the Kentucky Derby less attractive.’

Question:
Aren’t most starting gates movable, so therefore if Gulfstream wanted
to run a race at a mile and sixteenth it would simply have to move it
up a few feet?

Thanks.

[foad]

Not sure why but perhaps its because you'd either have a really short run
into the turn and a really long stretch or a really long run into the first
turn and a really short stretch.

<chr...@iwon.com> wrote in message
news:b6ebc295-87f0-415d...@a70g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...

[bar...@amnia.com]

Of course the gates are moved which is why races can do an entire trip
or more around the track but in the case of GP a 1 1/16 race would
start on the turn.

[wina...@gmail.com]

Since the track is now a mile and an eighth, the start of the race for
a mile and a sixteenth would have to be on the first turn. This
would put the horses with outside posts at a severe disadvantage. The
gate is movable but the finish line is a fixed point so the race
always ends at the same place. It could move the gate wherever it
wanted but not many people would enter their horse for fear of getting
an outside post and there is no staggering of lanes to make the start
fair.

Hope that helps.