My Prediction for Santa Anita

[Riot]

Originally Posted by merasmag

i was referring to what u said as a whole, but it did start this way:

"Horses cannot breath through their mouths, so I doubt much is getting in through the mouth and then swallowed during or just after a race, as the epiglottis is closed down over the esophagus so the horse can breath."

when i get home from work, i'll look for more on the subject too

Yes, that was in reference to horses swallowing the material, getting it into their stomach and intestines (see Zig's post on sand colic concerns).

What worries me is what Honu said about this morning (confirming what Bid said here days before - yes Bid, you were RIGHT <g>) - and what is described in a Blood-Horse article dated today: if they are finding pieces of asphalt, that means it's coming from the macadam top of the base - and if the base is breaking up (not level) - that's a big concern if horses can get down through the cushion.

Now, the deep synthetic cushion isn't supposed to allow that to ever happen (like dirt when it gets muddy - it's suspected by some that George Washington may have gone down through the cushion and hit the base at Monmouth, causing his injury).

We'll see.

I wonder if Cushion Track, Inc. has written a check to SA yet, to cover all this, the lost racing days, the Pro-Ride consult, the UC engineering lab consult, etc? No matter how well the other Cushion installation is working in CA (and it appears to have no problems), I don't see how the company is going to overcome the PR from this disaster of an installation, and more importantly, their failure to be able to fix it.