Santa Anita Cushion track claims it's first victim

[The Bid]

When you have a quarter inch of standing water on an all weather track after 1 rain, you have a major issue. ESPECIALLY when the track is uneven.

[theiman]

Originally Posted by The Bid

When you have a quarter inch of standing water on an all weather track after 1 rain, you have a major issue. ESPECIALLY when the track is uneven.

That was 1000% correct.
I was watching the SA cam on Saturday, when it rained in LA area, and was amazed that the entire rail area(paths 1 and 2) and a big chunk of the 7-8 path in the stretch were full of water.
The horses were working off the rail and still flying but you could see the splashing as if a little kid was jumping in puddles.

Then Sundays works were much slower than any other day in the past three weeks. Many horsemen complained of an uneven track.

It was almost like they didnt install the drainage system at SA.

Supposedly HP did not have any of the problems that SA had, and the # of workers and times of the works did not alter much.

[TitanSooner]

1. California has FORCED those tracks to change to synthetic surfaces.
2. Everybody continually bitched about how SLOW the times were at Del Mar and what a joke the races were.
3. Everybody is bitching about how FAST the surface is at Santa Anita.

I liked dirt as much as the next guy (or girl).. but what can we do?

[sumitas]

something is going on at SA and it's not good. 1/2 inch of rain should easily be handled by any all weather surface. ideally, it should make that surface even tighter but still safe. there is obviously a big problem with the drainage there and i would guess the amount of all weather poly over the asphalt is quite thin.

[theiman]

Originally Posted by sumitas

something is going on at SA and it's not good. 1/2 inch of rain should easily be handled by any all weather surface. ideally, it should make that surface even tighter but still safe. there is obviously a big problem with the drainage there and i would guess the amount of all weather poly over the asphalt is quite thin.

I wouldnt be shocked if the drainage wasnt installed correctly, or installed at all.

Maybe now we know why Joe Harper wouldnt water the DM track?

[Indian Charlie]

I would be hard pressed to think of man made (artificial) things that are better than their natural counterparts.

[ArlJim78]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

I would be hard pressed to think of man made (artificial) things that are better than their natural counterparts.

racetrack surfaces, even the dirt variety do not occur in nature. the dirt composition, drainage, base layering, banking, maintenance, etc, are all artificial. it is man who makes racetrack surfaces what they are.

leave aside the safety issue and say that its too early to be sure, synthetic tracks still handle weather better and are cheaper to maintain than dirt.

[NoChanceToDance]

Originally Posted by sumitas

something is going on at SA and it's not good. 1/2 inch of rain should easily be handled by any all weather surface. ideally, it should make that surface even tighter but still safe. there is obviously a big problem with the drainage there and i would guess the amount of all weather poly over the asphalt is quite thin.

Drainage certainly seems like a problem if what i have read is true. Rain does indeed make the track faster but still safe, and we see a hell of a lot more rain than southern CA does!

I'm with sniper on this, i can't believe how much effort is being made about every break down since the synthetic surfaces came along. I've been watching US racing for a few years now, and in my eyes i used to see just as many break down then (if not more) as i see now that the synthetic surfaces have suffered.

Have these tracks not given long enough for the track to have 'settled in' do you think?

[estreetposse]

Horses aren't safe no matter where they run or roam...

http://www.leaderherald.com/News/art...rticleID=13104

[sumitas]

The all weather tracks are supposed to handle as much rain as falls regardless the time frame short of a flash flood. . they are designed to do that. a 1/2 amount of rain should easily have been shrugged off by SA and for that amnt to give them problems is a signal something has really screwed up the track and we'd like to know what their problem is out therel.

[Hickory Hill Hoff]

Originally Posted by estreetposse

Horses aren't safe no matter where they run or roam...

http://www.leaderherald.com/News/art...rticleID=13104

I heard that the owner was more concern with getting the bridle back
It's gettin' REAL dangerous traveling the "backroads" in this county.

[NoChanceToDance]

Originally Posted by Cardus

While England on average recieves about 22" of rain each year, Los Angeles receives about 15". While that is a sizable difference, consider how the precipitation is distributed: the rainy season is much shorter in SoCal than the nearly 12-month cycle in which rain falls in your country. Have you ever seen a Southern California mudslide, the result of a few inches of rain in a very short (a few hours, one day) period? And this rain occurs during the Santa Anita winter-spring meet for the most part. When it rains in October-January, how much flat racing is conducted in England?

It's not simply a matter of how much rain, but how much rain falls within specified time periods.

Well put it this way..... this year we have suffered up to 3 inches of rain within a few hours in our "summer", all around the country, and apart from Southwell (which was washed away) all of the other tracks with artificial surfaces were fine (the drainage just needed a little helping hand, that's all).

As far as i'm aware the rain suffered at SA was not a 'flash flood' or anything like that.

As sumitas said, these tracks are designed to take as much rain as they possibly can. They have been tested when the surface was being developed. The drainage of poly is usually excellent. I don't know what differences there are with cushion track, but i can't image them to be too different.

edit: and to answer your final question, the all weather racing is throughout the year. So i have only seen 2 or 3 all weather cards abandoned because of the surface and that was because of heavy snowfall. The other all weather meetings abandaned in the winter have been because of fog.