The Tight Turns of Monmouth
Time this evening that I should have spent poring over the lifetime past performances of every Breeders’ Cup pre-entry has instead gone to investigating the tight turns of Monmouth meme floating around right now, popping up in all sorts of articles and early analysis of the first World Championships to be held at New Jersey’s jewel box of a racetrack. Turns out, Monmouth’s sharp curves may well be as apocryphal as those of Pimlico. Below are comparisons of Monmouth to three other one-mile oval tracks.
Monmouth and Santa Anita
Left: Santa Anita. Right: Monmouth overlaying Santa Anita. Click to to view a larger image.
Monmouth and Santa Anita both have stretches of 990 feet and share a configuration of similar length turns and straights.
Monmouth and Pimlico
Left: Pimlico. Right: Monmouth overlaying Pimlico. Click to to view a larger image.
Monmouth’s turns are slightly longer than those of Pimlico, which has straights approximately 25 feet longer than those of Monmouth.
Monmouth and Churchill
Left: Churchill. Right: Monmouth overlaying Churchill. Click to to view a larger image.
Churchill has straights approximately 59 feet longer than Monmouth, making its turns shorter than those at Monmouth. Note the sharpness of the turn into Churchill’s stretch.
It’s possible Monmouth’s turns are steeply banked. Higher banks flatter speed and punish outside-running horses, which could explain the track’s reputed speed bias and Monmouth oddsmaker Brad Thomas’ contention in an interview with Dave Litfin that horses who run well on their left leads do better at the track (DRF, PDF, $). Overall, though, Monmouth’s turns seem like a minor handicapping factor. A bigger one will be the condition of the track’s surfaces in late fall, especially that of the grass. Thomas tells Litfin that he wouldn’t be surprised “if the turf is a little bit longer for the Breeders’ Cup races than it is in regular day-to-day racing during the summer,” which could be helpful to the Europeans.
7 Comments