Diversity in the Saddle Towel Game
Real Writing on Racing 💯
There is a long list of things that Keeneland does right when it comes to conducting its six weeks of high quality racing, split into two meets, one in the spring and one in the fall. Unlike many of its brethren, the prestigious facility is immaculately kept, with colorful pots of bright colored flowers and well groomed shrubbery a fitting contrast to the stately stone exterior of the building. The outer wall beyond the famous saddling area is covered with icy and the paddock itself is lined with healthy maple trees which adds to the garden-like feel. There is a throwback-styled, tiered apron in front of the grandstand for fans to stand out and watch the live races. Keeneland offers a wide variety of dining options for all classifications of race goers, charging reasonable prices as compared to other boutique meets. Their forward thinking led them to create a race-day phone app and recently have added Spanish language coverage of their races. Keeneland’s new $3 minimum, low takeout “all turf” pick 3 is a popular, forward thinking new wager and they do an excellent job of connecting with the greater Lexington community, hosting many popular local events including the annual college scholarship days and Make a Wish Foundation day. The atmosphere for a racing venue is both upbeat and trendy, which lends itself toward a younger, fashionably attired crowd. Keeneland will never be mistaken for Hawthorne or Aqueduct.
As appealing as the aesthetics of a day at the races at the venerable Lexington racing cathedral can be, Keeneland has stubbornly held onto some odd traditions that simply prevent them from being even better. The vast majority of racetracks decided years ago to use color coded saddle towels as it gives those watching the race a far greater sense of where each individual horse is positioned. The Breeders Cup for years only used their ubiquitous purple towels in their championship events as that hue is their official color but even they finally switched over. While Keeneland does use color coded towels for non-stakes races, they bizarrely have stuck with the single color saddle towels in stakes races which when contrasted with what the racing viewer normally sees, has made these races far more difficult to follow. This was never more apparent than during the Buffalo Trace Franklin County stakes, a 5 1/2 furlong turf sprint for older fillies on Friday (see video below). Run during a torrential, late afternoon downpour, the field was difficult to see and the all-white saddle towel that the fillies wore made it close to impossible to decipher who was who. Winning trainer Michelle Lovell even commented about this very subject on TVG after the race.
“I couldn’t see anything. They were all two’s, they were all white saddle towels,” quipped Lovell during her post race interview. Interestingly the Keeneland media office omitted the comment about the all-white saddle towels in its post race notes distributed to the press on its website, which was pointed out on Twitter by Ray Paulick.
Why Keeneland does this with the stakes saddle towels isn’t exactly clear though apparently they are sensitive about it. While this topic is far from the most pressing issue facing modern day horse racing, it is annoying to its customers and at the very least Keeneland should provide the racing world with an explanation of why this “tradition” has persisted. Remember that up until 1997 Keeneland didn’t employ a track announcer, a tradition of the past that seems almost unthinkable in this day and age. C’mon Keeneland same color saddle towels are a tradition which has passed it’s time too.
Going in Circles Big Monday Show
Taped every Monday night with co-host Barry Spears, the Going in Circles Big Monday show covers the good, the bad and the ugly of the horse racing industry. Check us out at all of the major podcasting platforms like Spotify
