To be fair I am not sure what goes into building a safe surface.. I'm guessing that a surface that was built in 1920 isn't the way they would do it today?

Hopefully "the Bykster" will be able to get Ron Charles or Hammerle on ATR this evening to talk about it. I'll be listening to the archives later tonight.

Who is paying for this? Breeders Cup? Didn't know they had such funds available. Suit against Pro-Ride? Who are they going to sell the surface to? (training center, etc)

What did they just do at Gulfstream? Anybody know? Fluff up the top layers?

I do know that, aside from the surface, the turn radius, the steepness of banks (inclines), and flatness effects obviously speed, and that effects injuries (the faster they go, the more they blow apart). I know with Keeneland they changed the incline of the turns when they installed Polytrack.

I agree with you. If any of these tracks spent $10 million on a state-of-the-art dirt track (with a brand new base), I think it would be just as safe as a good synthetic track. I would actually prefer a good dirt track over a good synthetic track.

The only advantage of a synthetic track (with the exception of Santa Anita) over a dirt track is that they normally hold up great to rain and they don't have to be sealed like dirt tracks. Those sealed, rock-hard, sloppy tracks are really dangerous. I would actually much rather if they did not seal the tracks. The problem if they don't seal them is that they get really muddy and they end up getting a ton of scratches.

And as this development about the surface switch goes on...Barry Abrams is in panic mode

Why? He can still run in a Mdn Spl early on the card and come back in winners later on in the day..lol

Santa Anita will have to pay for it. I don't know how they'll come up with the money but they'll have to find a way. They can't have a track that runs in the winter that has to cancel racing every time it rains.

They can't sue Pro-Ride. Pro-Ride didn't do anything wrong. It was Cushion-Track that put in the track and botched the job. Pro-Ride came in there and tried to fix it and had only limited success. To totally fix it, I think they will have to totally re-do the drainage system and/or the base.

By the way, they can't sue Cushion Track because Cushion Track went bankrupt.

The other 3 major tracks in California will stay synthetic.

other 3?

Hol has a fine surface.

DMR - that is the worst of the three to handicap, its all over the map.

I meant Hollywood, Del Mar, and Golden Gate. Del Mar was a mess this past meet. They are finally going to bring in a new guy there. They just fired Steve Wood. I am hopeful that the track will be better this coming meet.

http://www.drf.com/news/article/110190.html

You got a mention on TVG today by the way... "Is Travis Stone calling LaD quarters this meet?" "No, he's working in some capacity at Gulfstream"

I can understand removing the existing surface to correct the drainage problems within the current base. One would think it would be more cost effective to correctly upgrade the drainage at SA than to remove the entire track and install dirt.

I would think that either way they would have to remove the track to fix the drainage.

You may be right . I do not know the specifics of that drainage problem.

Arlington Park has a nice cross-section of their track make up on display. It was pretty cool, though I may have been the only one that ever looked at it.

All the payoffs have been made to those who had their hands out from the CHRB people down... Even though they "mandated" synthetics 3 years ago... the CHRB won't stop SA from going to conventional dirt now.

You are right I should have said , dying more often and seeing the horse ambulance out everday.

Could the synthetic out be also in hopes of becoming the permanent spot of the Breeder's Cup?

You're right, yeah, that was Cushion Track that started at SA. Breeder's Cup may be paying for some of it? Again, but they don't have money, either - especially with foal nominations down.

Wonder if SA saved it's old cushion - they had it set aside, what did they end up doing with it?