Wind helps dry track at Keeneland

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ)- Track leaders at Keeneland know the power Mother Nature can have. While they cursed the rains earlier this week, they praised high winds that came along Thursday.

Keeneland’s dirt track was covered in puddles as horses took to practice as the sun rose. The sound of shoe meeting soggy, mud was anything but music to the ears of fans gathering early, jockeys on horseback and Keeneland’s track superintendent, Javier Barajas.

“Tightening it up or loosening it up if it rains or doesn’t rain,” says Barajas, describing what he does when he shows up at the track at 3 a.m. The day isn’t close to stopping once the sun comes up and the horses are off the track either.

As for the wind, Barajas says, “It dries it so much quicker and it helps a lot.”

Fans, watching the races agree, a drier track makes for better racing, or as Roy Durbin calls it, “truer” racing. “They ran truer today than I’ve ever seen them at Keeneland. So I’m hoping the races tomorrow and the next day run as true as they did today,” Durbin says.

And owners, like Rick Barton, whose horse, Last Waltz will run in the Breeders’ Cup are hopeful for the rest of the week. “And the wind, I’ll think we’ll be fine, I think it’ll be a firm turf, I think it’ll be a firm course.”

At last check, post time begin at 3:30 p.m. Friday but according to the Breeders’ Cup website, those times are subject to change.