I'm not sure but I think they have said that field size increased after they put in polytrack at Turfway.

I heard if you hover over the Turfway surface in a helicopter or hot air balloon, around the far turn I believe, you can actually see the Virgin Mary in the polytrack.

You heard wrong. What actually happens is that you hear a little voice, giving you cold trifectas.

I heard it's actually a likeness of Battaglia's dupa.

Well, if a likeness of Battaglia's dupa is hovering in the air over the far turn, it's 2-1 it will be hit by a landing jet.

as much as people call on god and jesus christ at the track, you'd think they'd be there too.

uh oh.. it's starting to pour here in SoCal again...

My God you people got short memories.Don't you remember the Friday Nights at Hollywood Park ? It was incredibly speed favoring in the Spring-Summer Meet in 2006.You really want to go back to that ****? Anything is better than that.I'm not talking a lil speed-favoring.

I didnt say it was good, just better than what previously existed there.

Though this may sound like an interesting theory, it can no way be possible due to the fact that the state vets may not know what they are looking at anyway. If you were to get real picky at Turfway in the winter there would be 3 horse fields. There have been many occasions that horses I have run have never been checked prerace and it wasnt until recently that they even took horses out of the stalls to check them.
The whole issue of comparing breakdowns vs. injury rates is muddled by the fact that breakdowns are a whole lot more complicated than just track surface. Track surfaces rarely are the primary reason why a horse breaks down but a poor surface can make an underlying injury more apt to become a major one.
Last year at the FG, which has a good surface, there were all kinds of feet and shin issues early in the meet, though horses werent breaking down from them. That is an example where the injury rate had increased dramatically but raw data doesnt show it because they werent life threatening injuries.

Bid makes a lot of good points but simply comparing fatal breakdowns is not accurate way of measuring overall safety.

That being said, it is a disgrace that the track at Santa Anita was improperly installed but not at all surprising considering Magna and it's strong executive leadership.

I bet if it rains much more the surface will float away and that will get them started on the re installation project.