The Polyandy Principle: Keeneland's Surface is Ugly, Messy and Wrong

To hear Andy Beyer tell it, there’s something strange or even freaky going on at Keeneland these days. Andy thinks this icon of American racing is mutating in front of our very eyes. With the help of some occasionally green little men whose aberrant riding tactics have produced a freakish spectacle of speed horses restrained against their will and then forced to run like hell for the last quarter mile. In Andy’s mind this produces a mutant form of racing where you have some really slow times and exciting blanket finishes. In Andy’s mind blanket finished are bad for racing and the betting public. Go figure?

Andy whines on about how fans were cheated out of a definitive Derby prep by the surface and pace scenario in the Blue Grass. I say Andy, wake up its 2007, the Blue Grass has not been a definitive Derby prep for years. The Wood Memorial and the Santa Anita Derby have been the definitive Derby preps for the last decade. As a fan I did not feel cheated, I witnessed one of the most exciting Blue Grass Stakes I can remember.

Andy is also worried that Keeneland’s surface will negatively impact the breeding industry which has invested billions of dollars to produce speed horses. Yes Andy, billions of dollars spent to breed anatomical accidents waiting to happen who breakdown with a regularity that is frightening and ugly to watch.

What’s ugly messy and wrong here is Andy’s point of view. .