Tip of the Week: Switch Hitters

A surface change should be considered when handicapping a race. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
A surface switch can be one of the more powerful tools for a handicapper.
Turf and dirt are distinctly different surfaces, and form on one of them usually does not translate well over to the other.
With young horses, when trainers are uncertain about what best suits their runners, this process can be extremely revealing.
A good example is Ice Festival, a 2-year-old daughter of Awesome Again out of the Cozzene mare Phil’s Pill. Her pedigree indicated she could handle turf, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that the Stronach Stables filly debuted on the grass for trainer Brian Lynch.
That first race came on Aug. 3 at Woodbine when Ice Festival endured a wide trip and finished fifth by 6 ¾ lengths in a 6-furlong maiden special weight race as the 2-to-1 favorite.
After that, Ice Festival did not return to the races until Oct. 26 at Churchill Downs when she was entered in another maiden special weight race, this time at a mile – and on dirt.
Once again sent off at 2-to-1 odds, Ice Festival again finished fifth, only this time she lost by 17 ¼ lengths and registered a significantly slower speed figure.
Nearly two months later, Ice Festival popped up in the entries again. It was the eighth race at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 16 and it was another one-mile maiden special weight race. This time, however, it was back on turf.
Meanwhile, ever since her race on Oct. 26, Ice Festival had registered four workouts – all of them of turf. One of them earned a bullet as the fastest workout of the day at that distance.
Clearly, after weighing both races, Ice Festival’s connections believed she was a turfer and prepped her for a return to the sod.
It might have been difficult to back Ice Festival at 2-to-1 for a third straight time, but in her third try she was sent off at 9-to-1 odds and was an intriguing possibility at that price.
For those handicappers who believed Ice Festival was primed for an improved effort on turf, there was indeed a payoff as she rallied strongly in the stretch and won by a half-length, paying $21.20 for a $2 wager and topping a $149.80 exacta and a $1,231.60 trifecta.
THE LESSON: A switch from dirt to turf is a strong handicapping angle, especially with young horses when a return to a preferred surface is involved.