by Jeff Lowe

Keeneland Association will unveil an innovative handicapping tool on its website this week in advance of its upcoming fall meeting, which begins on October 3.

The site will feature a free data sheet with sortable information from every race contested at Keeneland since the 2006 fall meet, which marked the debut of the Polytrack surface that replaced the conventional dirt strip at the Lexington racetrack.

Sortable data categories include race type, distance, temperature, field size, final time, track maintenance and information about the winner, including post position, half-mile position, and last race location.

Keeneland officials formulated the data sheet, dubbed Polycapping, this summer while consulting with handicappers. Jeremy Plonk, former editor of HorsePlayer magazine, helped develop the concept.

“Handicappers told us they would like to have more information than what we were currently making available, mostly on the website and also in the program,” said Julie Balog, Keeneland’s digital marketing manager. “It seemed in our conversations with handicappers, that everybody had their own theory on what was important, so rather than bundle and tell them, ‘This is what we think you want,’ we’re going to put it up there and let them choose what they think is important.”

The data sheet will be updated at the end of each race day during the 16-day meet.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer