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Originally Posted by pick4
I agree with you 100 percent. There are so many variables which have contributed to the weakening of the breed. A well maintained dirt course should be good enough.
I don't know if you follow NY racing but everytime we get heavy rain, NYRA has to cancel racing if they are running on Aqueduct's main track.
Aqueduct was rebuilt in the late 1950's and I'm going to assume that the base of the racetrack was a part of the work that was done on the track.
When was the last time, the main track's base was replaced? They installed the inner dirt course in 1975. Was any work done on the main track when they ripped out the main turf course?
I think I'm stating the obvious here but a more pragmatic approach to synthetic surfaces would have been to install a few in different areas. One at Turfway Park which has cold winters. Maybe install another at one of the So Cal tracks that run in the spring and summer. The people at Delmar really pushed hard to have this surface installed so that would of been a good track to test the surface. These are all "they should of" arguments.
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I think people would accept the synthetics much better if the reasoning was weather related. I guess Turfway has worked out the kinks that they originally had, and probably didn't lose any days due to the track. I could undersatnd if Aqueduct wanted to do the same because it is basically a winter track. I would rather have a track give that reason then use the saftey issue statement. It is not that I do not care about the horses safety, but I just do not think that there has been enough research. As far as the days that Aqueduct lose now, I think it is more of the jocks strongarming NYRA than the actual track condition. But I could be off base there.