Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) has added another handicapping tool to the Thoroughbred horseplayer’s arsenal.
Beginning Friday, August 8, Woodbine will report the TurfTrax GoingStick measurement in its daily track maintenance commentary.
The “GoingStick” will offer a systematic and objective assessment of the condition of the E.P Taylor Turf Course. The device, when inserted in the turf, measures the penetration (the amount of force required to push the tip into the ground) and the shear (the energy needed to pull back to an angle of 45 degrees from the ground). The combination of these metrics represents a quantitative measurement of the firmness of the ground.
At Woodbine, the turf will be assessed every sixteenth of a mile via the GoingStick mid-morning each racing day. An average of the readings will be taken and a rating on a 15-point scale (15 for very firm, 0 for very soft) is created. This number is then applied against a traditional soft-to-firm turf scale suitable for public consumption.
“Racing fans and horsepeople have long sought to quantify our turf conditions,” said Steve Koch, WEG’s Vice-President of Thoroughbred Racing. “The GoingStick has been adopted at all courses in Great Britain and some tracks in the United States. We’ve been testing the technology for several months and we believe in it.”
The turf condition (and GoingStick number) will continue to be announced and posted with the daily race changes data and the track maintenance information package.
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