Quote:
Originally Posted by cmorioles
Well, in the past decade we had around 12 tracks change surfaces because they were "safer". If breakdowns aren't an issue, why the change? We also had the recent rash of breakdowns in New York. We have similar happening every day around the country. The difference is not many people care about what is happening at Penn National or Prairie Meadows or Emerald Downs...yet.
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Do you really think that tracks went to synthetic surfaces because of horses? C'mon get real. They wanted a "maintenance free" surface to save them money. I know for a fact that 2 of the tracks that hold TC races have had their track maintenance budgets cut since the advent of synthetic surfaces. There is no evidence that there is a rash of breakdowns everyday around the country. In fact there isnt evidence that there are more breakdowns now than 20 years ago since there is very little data from then but of course there is plenty of conjecture. You see the little issue that people seem to forget is that it wasnt so long ago that races werent available on tv or at simulcasting centers or on the internet. Charts werent readily available except for your local tracks. So of course it seems like less was happening them because you had so little information as compared to now.
Racing does a horrific job controlling the message especially on things like breakdowns which are impossible to spin especially without data.