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Weighty Issues - the trials and tribulations of writing conditions for 3 surfaces

By Bill Heller
First Published: 14 October 2009 - Issue Number: 14

The job of a racing secretary has never been easy. Pleasing an entire population of horsemen simultaneously may be literally impossible.
The recent advent of synthetic racing surfaces has increased a racing secretary’s challenges exponentially. And it’s not likely to stop.
Nobody knows that better than Ben Huffman.
With remarkable candor, the veteran racing secretary of Churchill Downs and Keeneland explained why he would like another shot at weighting the horses that contested the $557,600 Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 2nd, the race before the Kentucky Derby.
“Frankly, that one got by me,” Huffman said. “Einstein should have been the highweight.”
Instead, because of the weight allowances Huffman had written into the stakes in January – several weeks before Einstein (Brz) won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on Pro-Ride, the track’s synthetic course – Einstein carried 119 pounds, five less than highweight Court Vision.
The allowances Huffman had written for the stakes specified “Non-winners of a Grade or Group 1 stakes over a mile on turf since October 3, 2008, allowed 3lbs.; $150,000 over a mile on the turf since September 1, 2008, 5lbs.; a graded or group stakes a mile or over in 2008-2009, 7lbs.”
He wishes he could go back in time and tweak those allowance conditions.
“My weight allowances were ‘Grade 1 on turf’,” Huffman said. “Einstein won a Grade 1 on synthetic. We’re so used to writing weight allowances for turf, ‘Grade 1 wins on turf.’ There’s never been a Grade 1 winner of the Santa Anita Handicap who came here for the Woodford Reserve. No horse had ever come from the Santa Anita Handicap and run in the Woodford. I’d written those conditions in January. He hadn’t even won yet. I didn’t have the Big ‘Cap on my mind. I could have written ‘any Grade 1.’ Especially with synthetics, you have to be...

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