Originally Posted by SentToStud

Well, I just cannot believe that the stuff can possibly be better than well-maintained, good old fashioned dirt. I suppose I can understand why they put it in at Turfway (weather, frozen tracks, etc,...) but just because one track wants to run in the winter offering a smorgasboard of different $5k-$10k conditioned claimers doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, even for Turfway. I mean, aside from offering people a place to run very cheap horses in very poor weather, what other purpose do the Turfway "holiday" and winter meets serve? I don't begrudge Turfway horsemen or the people who like to wager on its races, but it's just not for me.

I read a post on another thread about an increase in foot and hoof problems potentially attributed to the artificial track at Turfway ... infections and carpet burn-type symptoms. I also read that trainers are spraying their horses feet with cooking spray to lessen the impact. Crazy stuff and I would bet dollars to dimes the "carpet salesman" from Polytrack did not have a slide on carpet burn symptoms in his PowerPoint presentation.

Hard to believe that Keeneland, which runs what, 10 weeks a year, went for this.