Keeneland: Nine track records set at this meet

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Track records have been falling like pennies from heaven this spring at Keeneland, but knowing fans and horsemen are taking them in context.

It got pretty ridiculous early this week, as the Wednesday card opened with back-to-back records: Hey Mike went 4 1/2 furlongs in 51.36 seconds, and Tale of Life went 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.34. Then, on Thursday, Lady Aurelia further lowered the 4 1/2-furlong record by winning in 50.85 seconds, and Free Rose set a turf-course record for 1 1/8 miles in 1:51.42.

Not only have both the main track and turf course been playing particularly fast – no doubt because of a recent lack of rain – but main-track records only date to the fall of 2014, when the new dirt surface replaced Polytrack. And with 4 1/2-furlong races restricted to 2-year-olds, only about a dozen of those have been run since the new track was installed.

In all, nine records were set during the first 10 of 16 days at this meet. Five were on turf, but Keeneland maintains separate sets of turf records depending on rail settings. Perhaps the most glaring example of how cheaply some records have come was when Free Rose earned an 81 Beyer Speed Figure in winning a starter allowance.

Effective with this meet, Keeneland is now placing its inner rails at four different settings (zero, 10, 15, and 20 feet), and the electronic timing system is only equipped for two permanent settings (zero and 15 feet), which brings accuracy into question. For the Free Rose race, the rail was set at 10 feet, a new setting and thus a new record.