Would it shock you if I told you that(strictly hearsay so Euro doesn't freak out) that some folks up here I know have said that a couple of prominent trainers out west are already making plans to run the bulk of their horses in Kentucky and NY and Gulfstream after the switch is made out in Cali? Noone with Derby dreams or grade one aspirations is going to want to prep for the Roses out there, and with good reason.
Good friend of mine is a retired trainer, now a clocker and manager of a few small stables. He trained for 33 years and told me last week when we were discussing breakdowns that in 33 years he had 3 horses break down and die on the track. He said that after each one he wanted to quite the game, said he never did anything in his life to hurt a horse. He told me emphatically that the reasons for the breakdowns are not the surfaces, but the trainers who now run horses back so quickly and often and the new vet techniques that allow a horse to run who should be laid up. Said all the hyuralonic acid and cortisone they use in joints as well as other medications are allowing horses to run who should never get by the vet but because they need to fill cards that noone disallows it. He also said in his unique Maryland accent "son if they go to that stuff it will change the whole breed around and screw up the whole breeding market and you tell me whose gonna pay all this money for horses when they aint worth nothing when they are done with the track". This guy is a unique racetrack character but did train a lot stakes winners and even had grade one winners. EPBurns knows this guy very well. He also pointed out that the guys pushing this stuff were all european and he said "**** son, them guys been trying to come over and beat us for years and they never could figure the **** out how to put the speed in em that we do and get em to stretch, they can't do it! All those ****ing guys wanna do is make it so horses without speed can just keep galloping along and win races."
Now you can tell me I don't know what I am talking about and you may be right, I am not a trainer, I don't know. But I can tell you that the trainers I know and have asked all dislike the stuff to a man, not one yet has told me they wanna race on it.