Big Brown, Polytrack and Gay Marriage

All signs are pointing to Monmouth Park for Big Brown's next race, who was already scheduled to run on the turf on September 13th, regardless of the location.

The deal is not currently official, but Monmouth is whipping a turf race up out of thin air for Big Brown, whose participation would increase the stakes from $200,000 to $500,000.

To me, that means Big Brown is that important whether you think he could take Curlin or not.

Unfortunately, it looks like we're never going to see that because their schedules conflict until the Breeders' Cup on October 25th and Curlin's owner, Jess Jackson, doesn't want him running on synthetics at Santa Anita.

All I have to say is good luck with that philosophy.

Polytrack or any similar synthetic surface is like gay marriage because whether you support it or not, it's gonna be everywhere soon.

So maybe Curlin will avoid it for the rest of his racing career, but I promise you that in the long run, any strategy that aims to avoid the inevitable will probably fail.

Accordingly, whether they like it or not, horses, jockeys, trainers and owners are going to have to learn to adjust to the times or be forced to run at a significantly reduced number of tracks over time.

New York is a haven for polytrack opposers today, but over time that may very well change too.

My goal is to see that transformation ASAP.