Everybody got in on their installation deal with their buddies and made a few million installing this junk.
Thats how we do things in racing.
Instead of marketing the sport to the masses on cable television( a niche that companies like tvg and hrtv have to step up independantly to fill half-assed!!) and instead of making $$ on bet accounts(who needs beer commercials now?), and instead of "selling" the game through cable television to the American consumer to double or triple the popularity and income of the sport - we make little deals. We will install your surface .... we will run your mini-casino...
- small time independant stuff that doesn't really benefit the business of the sport as a whole and leaves it underdeveloped.
We thought about all the issues on these surfaces for a short time, and then almost randomly installed a variety of surfaces from a variety of businesses (for a variety of different "deals").
Now we have garbage dust cloud surfaces in Turfway and Woodbine. We have a cushion and a
fast cushion in California. We have a polytrack in Keeneland and Arlington. We have a heavy-polytrack at Del Mar. We have a Tapeta footing surface at PID
They installed this synthetic-turf at the expense of the quality, aesthetics, and dynamics of classic distance dirt racing. They played the safety card as if that was their interest.
Synthetic-turf is a fine 3rd surface. A lot of animals would do well to occasionaly train on the synthetic-turf. The cheaper animals would do better to run on it at all times. The poor-weather season runners would benefit.