(From The Louisville Courier-Journal) –(8/18/08) — Turf writer Andy Beyer has complained that synthetic surfaces produce “boringly homogenized” races.

Courier-Journal columnist Rick Bozich wrote in 2007 that he’d “seen lines at the Post Office move faster” than the horses in the first Blue Grass Stakes that was run on Polytrack at Keeneland that year.

Steve Moody, publisher of the Kentucky Handicapper’s Sheet, acknowledges that by slowing down speed horses, synthetic tracks make races more competitive and arguably more exciting.

“But handicappers aren’t looking for exciting races,” he said. “They want to pick the winner. … My personal feelings are that I don’t like them.”

He said serious horseplayers stay away from betting on artificial surfaces in part because they can’t figure them out — by evening the field, the synthetics make it harder to eliminate horses from contention.

Other handicappers have said that handicapping is more challenging because of the unpredictability of races as horses move between dirt and synthetic surfaces.

“You used to be able to throw out eight horses in a 12-horse field and focus on the other four,” Moody said. “Now it’s the other way around.”

For example, horses that could get to the inside at Keeneland, which was known as the Golden Rail, used to be a good bet on its old dirt track, Moody said.

But because synthetic tracks drain better and are more consistent across the track, they eliminate the advantage for inside runners, he and other handicappers say.

Keeneland’s average daily handle during its spring meet this year dropped to about $8.9 million from $10.2 million, which spokesman Jim Williams said may have been attributable in part to players “uncomfortable with betting on the Polytrack.”

But Turfway Park’s CEO Robert Elliston said his track’s handle has grown since it became the first in North America to go synthetic. He credits that in part to larger fields and fewer racing days lost to bad weather.

He said horses don’t have to go to the front because there is less “kickback” — the dirt thrown by horses — to avoid. That means horses are clumped closer together as they head home.

“You have more exciting finishes,” he said.

Figures collected by Polytrack, which has installed its synthetic surface at five North American racetracks, confirm that the average number of lengths between the winner and last-place finisher has declined — dramatically so at Keeneland.

They also show that the knock on Polytrack — that it is slower — is a myth, said Jim Pendergast, general manager the British company’s U.S. division, a joint venture with Keeneland.

Four tracks with Polytrack had average winning times that were equal to average speeds on dirt. Only one, Del Mar Race Course, was significantly slower at every distance; the average winner at a mile distance was three seconds slower. At Keeneland, according to the company, the average winners’ time was faster at every distance in 2007 on Polytrack than in 2006 on dirt.

This year at Del Mar, however, the pace has picked up after the track decided to water its surface. In the first three days of this summer’s meet, for example, the record for 5 1/2 furlongs was lowered twice.

(From newsday.com) — Fears about physical abuse in jail and kudos for kicking a drug habit weren’t enough to save two Pennsylvania gamblers from federal prison for their roles in corrupting an NBA referee in a betting scandal.

James Battista, 42, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and Thomas Martino, 42, got a year and a day from federal Judge Carol B. Amon in Brooklyn.

Amon said both men and ex-NBA official Timothy Donaghy were liable for $217,000 in restitution to the NBA. Because Amon found the three men had different levels of responsibilities for the amount, their final payouts would individually vary. The NBA had wanted more than $1 million.

Prosecutors said the betting scheme covered about 40 games in the 2006 and 2007 seasons and netted Donaghy up to $30,000 a year for game tips. Amon said Battista corrupted a sports official who should have been above reproach.

Defense attorneys for both men had argued that probation or house arrest would be best. One of Martino’s brothers said in a letter to Amon that the aspiring cosmetologist could be the subject of abuse in prison.

Both men choked up as they separately apologized to Amon and accepted responsibility for the gambling scheme.

“I made bad choices and take full responsibility,” said Battista, an admitted reformed drug and alcohol abuser. “I want to apologize to my wife, my children and my family.”

Martino’s eyes teared up as he told Amon how he had suffered the nightmare of publicity of the criminal prosecution.

“I am very sorry it took an event of this nature to wake me up,” said Martino, who prosecutor Jeffrey Goldberg has said passed along inside information about NBA games from Donaghy to Battista, who then placed the bets. All three were high school friends.

Amon told Battista to surrender to federal prison officials on Sept. 18 and gave Martino until Oct. 16 to surrender so he could finish his cosmetology studies. Donaghy, 41, is to be sentenced Tuesday. Sentencing guidelines suggest up to 33 months.