AQU Inner Track lines

[For The Lead]

Bill V and I communicated about the 6th race at BEL today.
I am happy to report that Bill V had the $65.00 winner!!

There is a couple of things I want to make clear.
1 - I did NOT look at this race, either before or after the fact.
2 - What I am going to offer as "help" here is something I learned from Tom Brohamer at a Sartin Seminar at Saratoga many years ago, so I don't want to take credit for something I learned from him. Hopefully there are those who read this that will learn something useful like I did. Ok, on to the help.

Bill V sent me his BL/BL screen shot for the race. The first thing I noticed was the line he used for the #1 horse. It was line 4. Knowing Bill, I know he must have had a good reason for going back to that line, however, what stuck out for me was the square with a lower case "d" inside the square on that line and that the line was from AQU. What that square with a lower case d inside of it represents is the "inner" track at AQU. The inner track is where they race during the winter racing season at AQU. So what?

I remember asking Tom Brohamer about a particular horse I was making a case for in a race I was working. A race from AQU on the inner track was involved. He pointed out to me that the quality of racing at AQU during the winter racing season is considerably less than it is during the spring, summer and fall seasons. The reason being, the larger stables with the better quality horses are in Florida during the winter. Why? TURF RACING. There is no turf racing in NY, or anywhere else in the north during the winter, so the larger stables with quality horses and horses that are turf specialists all head for Florida leaving lower quality horses to race in NY during the winter season. When the horses return from Florida, seldom do the horses that raced in NY during the winter months compete well with them.

In addition to the above, the inner track is not the same surface as the main track. The inner track is specifically for winter racing so it is conditioned for the winter weather. Some horses like it, others don't.

As you can see, I was very appreciative of Tom Brohamer explaining this to me. All these years later it is a small piece of good information that has stayed with me. I hope it helps you.

[NeedForSpeed]

Thanks FTL. I'll add that to my notebook.

[Lt1]

Good info however I would like to point out that with racino money involved in purses today more outfits are now leaving strings of horses here that did not leave in prior years including some Ky outfits.

[DaveEdwards]

Thank you for that FTL,

I'd wondered what the small d was meant to signify. Also watching the track feed from Aqueduct previously, I'd noticed that some of the horses didn't have the "look" of a horse that you'd associate with a major US racing circuit. The movement of the better horses to Florida was something I wasn't away of, but will watch out for from now on.

[Mark]

Tom made some of the same comments about AQUi out west in seminars in Las Vegas that I attended. It was even suggested at the time that they used anti-freeze on the surface to keep it from freezing.

In my own play I will seldom use an AQUi line unless I absolutely want to play the race and have no other choice. While I believe the inner track is 8f, the main track is 9f, the timing sensors are set up differently than the main track. The races appear more sustained than main track lines and fractions. In many ways, the resulting lines are very similar to MNR and they do not transfer well to other tracks.

This said, there is usually a second string left behind by some of the bigger barns. Late developing 2 year olds and early 3 years can become useful horses on this circuit. However, for most this is a time for the trainers from FL, PEN and others with lower purse structures to fatten their bankrolls.

[Segwin]

Thanks for that nugget FTL.