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Monday, July 24, 2006

Long Time Between Drinks






Anonymous said...

Here's hoping everyth. ing works out for Christening. I lost a $6K claimer this week at Charlestown and have been walking around with a rock in my stomach since. His name was "Bad Credit". Removed chips from his knee in December and first race back he fell apart. Can't get used to it and I never want to.

And good luck with Clancy. An old steeplechase jock. I'll be reading every day.

Bank Check

alan said...

Thanks Bank Check. And so sorry to hear about your horse.

Anonymous said...

Turns all over the world are way underbanked. At racing speed, the bank should approach double the usual angles from an "engineering perspective". The issue is almost always the ability to maintain the surface, washouts and gradual migration of material to the rail.
Fast 1/2 mile harness ovals are usually very steeply banked, but Flamboro, which used to have the steepest bank around dropped the angle due to maintenance (in the 80's I think). Guys used to drop down from the outside and get a downhill run at it, which added another dynamic to outside posts.
Polytrack should be better I think, but I haven't seen any info about being able to increase bank angles. One can argue that turning on flat turns is part if racing, and I can't argue that mentality. Fair tracks are sometimes really flat, but from a soundness point of view its a potential contributor to the problems we see. In racing cars, the bigger the bank the higher the speed and the less the "handling". In NA racing it seems people like speed over finesse, so I don't myself understand why banking isn't a higher priority.
Just an opinion ;-)