posted May 16, 2008 at 20:20 in Triple Crown Articles

With the controversy surroundings the break down of Eight Belles in the Preakness and the continued debate over synthetic surfaces, cagey online betting fans just realize that reality is reality and they move on to greener sports betting pastures like the current horse betting Golden Gate meeting event.

Lump it or like it, synthetic tracks are here to stay at least for the immediate future and the sooner that horse bettors stop whining and start studying, the better off their chances will be to cash tickets.

Numbers are numbers and stats can be manipulated but the fact is that overall the first year of the

Tapeta racing at Golden Gate was a success.

Tapeta was invented by former trainer Michael Dickinson and was used on his Tapeta Farm for almost a decade. It is slightly different from the Cushion Track or Polytrack and one of its benefits is the somewhat superior draining system.

The concept of the synthetic came from the idea to lessen horrible accidents and the Tapeta is off to a good start.

Ten horses from over 4,000 suffered catastrophic injuries during the initial Tapeta meet and 5 of those deaths occurred during an 8-day period before maintenance procedures were changed.

As far as track bias is concerned, during the first meeting with Tapeta at Golden Gate the surface played very fair. The best horses seemed to win, speed won its share as with all surfaces and runners that could track and rally wide seemed to thrive.

The adjustment that horse bettors have to make during this upcoming meet is to expect slightly slower times than one would see at the other Northern California venue Bay Meadows.

Consider the Beyer Pars to get a feel of how the track will play this spring.

During the summer fall meet of 2007 on the conventional surface, Golden Gate played a bit quicker in all categories.

Claimers between $4,000 and $5,000 generally posted Beyers in the 77 range but when the surface switched to Tapeta, the number fell to 74 for those same runners.

And this kind of a drop was across the board.

A group of $20,000 runners on the conventional consistently were in the winning range of 89 Beyerwise but on the Tapeta, the figure fell to 86.

As the quality of runners escalated the difference became even more pronounced as $50,000 claimers on the conventional were average at a 96 Beyer, while on the Tapeta, 92 became the norm.

As mentioned earlier, horse bettors know that stats can lie and be made to relate any kind of story with some inventful thinking but what bettors never lose track of is where the winners come from and how they got to the ‘charmed circle’.

Bottom line is that astute horse bettors should not just look for quick times on the Tapeta but more importantly how the horses won and with how much gas they had left in the tank.

Getting value will not be easy this meet considering that in the final week of the Tapeta which ended on February 3 a total of 44 races were run and the favorite cashed 14 times.

The horse bettors that will succeed this meet at Golden Gate will be wagering on fit horses that can maintain contact from the sound of the bell.

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