The Bad Weather Blues
March 4, 2008
The bad weather blues–that’s what many of the racing folks in Chicago are experiencing right now. According to a recent NPR (National Public Radio) report, the Windy City has experienced the fifth worst winter in history, since the Prairie State began keeping such records.
The countless near-blizzards, hazard driving conditions, sloppy barn areas and slippery racetracks have all put a damper on this winter’s Windy City racing scene. Balmoral has been forced to cancel four of its racing cards–a very rare occurence. On other nights, races have been delayed or a few events contested before the remained of the card has been called.
This speaks volumes on the fact that horsemen and racetrack crews are at the complete mercy of Mother Nature.
Consider that snow is much worse on a racetrack surface than rain. Track crews are constantly scraping excess snow off the track, and each time they do, they take a little bit of racetrack with them.
The track crews add salt to the water in the wintertime when the temperature dips below 22 degrees Farenheit, to keep the dust down, but another heavy snowfall requires another removel of snow, and again, a bit of the track goes with it. If there’s too much salt on the track surface, and the temperatures rise above 28 degrees Farenheit, the track will begin to thaw, and can cause horses to slip. The line between a great surface and one that is potentially dangerous is indeed a fine line.
Trainers do what they can to help their horses: they add borium to their shoes, and some add breathing masks to help defer the cold air from shocking a horse’s air passages while racing and training.
But what about the drivers? While I don’t know if they all get the blues at this time of year, most certainly, they get the chills.
These brave souls have to deal with tremendous headwinds and blinding snow when turning for home or entering the backstretch for the first (or only) time–depending if they’re racing on a half or one mile oval. Meeting Mother Nature’s ugly force when steering a 1,200-pound racehorse can only be described as bone chilling.
But do drivers change their race strategies when facing such conditions? Hall of Famer and Chicago mainstay Dave Magee said being on or near the front end is important when facing strong wind conditions.
“You want to be on the front end or near the front in a strong headwind,” noted Magee, a 53-year-old Wisconsin native. “It’s harder for horses to pass you with a strong headwind, so you take advantage to draw off a little bit down the backstretch in order to hopefully gain some lengths in the stretch.”
Fellow driver Mike Oosting agrees with Magee.
“You try to be on or near the lead with a headwind coming at you in the stretch,” the 45-year-old Michigan native said. “Usually the second and last quarters are going to be very slow. It’s too hard to pass another horse going into the wind for a lot of horses. Their attitudes just can’t handle that, and it takes a really strong horse to overcome that disadvantage. You have to live with the horse that you’ve been given to drive, and some of them just don’t like that strong of a wind hitting them in the face.”
Ohio native Tony Morgan, 49, who used to be a Chicago regular and now competes over East Coast ovals had this to say:
““I try to get into a groove that works at the beginning of the night during a bad weather situation and stick with it,” Morgan stated. “Sometimes it seems that being on the front end, or being first up is the right way to go and at other times, that theory just doesn’t fly. I tend to air horses out a lot more over a half-mile track than I will at a bigger track, such as Balmoral or The Meadowlands.
“Strategy is very important generally with a strong wind,” Morgan continued. “You just have to be the first driver to figure out what’s going to work best on a super windy night, and go with it. You can kind of get away with it for the first couple of races, until everyone else figures out where the best place to be on the race track is. It’s a lot easier early on in the evening than it is later in the night when it becomes a very biased race track.”
Other reinsmen had varied opinions.
“I take a strong headwind into consideration when driving,” said 2007 Driver of the Year Tim Tetrick, 26. “It depends a lot on the horse, however. Some horses stop as soon as that wind hits them in the face—it’s like punching them in their forehead. Others just seem to grind right into the wind more and more.”
“If I have a front-end horse I still try to be up close in the two-hole,” notes Illinois native Pat Berry, 30. “I might try a little harder to get up near the front with a horse who has some gate speed but you usually races covered up. I’d still rather be covered up than on top—that is, getting a two-hole trip.”
“I think a strong headwind affects each horse differently so you have to consider the horse you’re driving in a particular race,” said Dale Hiteman, 49, an Ohio native and longtime Chicago driver now racing at Pompano Park in Florida. “But no matter what, I always prefer to be near the front turning for home.”
“On a half mile track you can’t adjust anything too much—even in regards to a strong headwind,” noted Andy Miller, 36, an Illinois native racing at The Meadowlands. “You’re always better if you’re up close with a strong wind though. But the class of the horse still overrides the wind.”
-30-
