Art Wilson: Cali perspective (with Shirreffs, Stute)

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by Kasept

First, the opinion of the trainers is pretty close... Personally, I don't have an anti-synthetic stance Steve.. I don't care either way. I have an open mind stance that allows for it's use in appropriate venues. It's the other viewpoint that has an imperative attached to it that I don't care for. (The "We have to go to synthetic everywhere immediately to save the game" camp.)

No, it's not close.It's not like if you polled 150,then you would get 80 for,and 70 against. It would be like 40-60 against,and 110-90 for. It's a definite obvious majority,but we don't have to speculate on it. I'll find the results. You put up a story with people complaining about synthetic. I don't think that's by chance. You and Crist both got a anti-synthetic bias. So, why deny it? I have heard you take shot after shot at synthetic on your show. You didn't really like very many horses winning 3 year old stakes races on synthetic to be taking up spots in the Derby starting gate etc. I have seen our field sizes go up out here, and overall it's a safer surface. In the end, this is gunna be the argument ( "synthetic isn't safer" ) that will be proven totally incorrect. Do I "like" synthetic surfaces? Well,I like that horses come back quicker. The fields are bigger now. That's the 1st thing I would say I like about the synthetic surfaces. Horses can run more often. I guess the ant-synthetic people think it's some kind of fluke(that fields out here are bigger now.) Are they as easy to cap as dirt? Our dirt tracks out here had a lot more short term bias problems than any of these synthetics have. The dirt tracks we had constantly favoring speed,and always favored the inside or outside. That wouldn't be that awful if it stayed that way for weeks at a time(like synthetic course biases do.) Our dirt courses often had biases that changed during a day's racing. The cushion track at Hollywood would be my favorite synthetic course. The polytrack at Keeneland and Del Mar are my least favorite. They are very difficult to cap,and that's why people mainly hate synthetic tracks. There is no doubt in my mind that the cushion track at Hollywood is a less biased track than the previous dirt course we had here. How soon people forget the speed biases we had on Friday nights out here. I want something that's good for horses,trainers,and the betting public. I don't think that's what we had at Churchill last Saturday. I don't think it's what POLYTRACK provides either(very poor for betting purposes.) If we could do what Dutrow said to do (have better people in charge of tracks,) then I would be fine with dirt. There needs to be a lot more quality control ,and basic standards used with dirt courses. If we could do that,then I think we could train on the surface people prefer,and race on dirt.The problem is that (at this time) dirt courses are very hard to keep standardized. Dutrow is correct (theoretically.) We( theoretically) could get dirt courses as safe as synthetic,but we don't come close to that right now. As long as we keep thinking it's cool to have a rock hard dirt track on big days at Churchill,then injuries to well known horses are going to keep being an issue. Look, the 1st race that I saw last Saturday (at Churchill)was probably the 5th race. The top two horses out of the gate were the only two involved in the race. They were tired,but nothing moved to them as they came to the wire. That's when I wrote on here that they didn't open that track up enough. Johnny V. said it was "tight n' fast." Nobody seemed to care. They just wanted to know who was going to win the Derby. As long as people don't keep track of how hard dirt tracks are, then horses are at a lot of risk. There needs to be a way to quantify just how hard a dirt track is, and make sure there are standards. Theoretically,I believe we can race safely on dirt,but it will take a lot more effort and money than is put into it right now. I'm not against racing on either dirt or synthetic,but quality control with dirt tracks has to be increased incredibly.

[SniperSB23]

The synthetic fields are bigger cause they are filled with turf horses.

[kgar311]

We'll see how much the trainers like the sythetic surface once it comes BC time and nobody shows up. Curlin isnt going near that crap. A big thanks to Santa Anita for making the best horse in the country or possibly the world go over seas for his final races. Cant wait to see those on tape delay.

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by kgar311

We'll see how much the trainers like the sythetic surface once it comes BC time and nobody shows up. Curlin isnt going near that crap. A big thanks to Santa Anita for making the best horse in the country or possibly the world go over seas for his final races. Cant wait to see those on tape delay.

If Zenyata handled Anita and OP,then Curlin should be able to do it,too. The really good horses are supposed to be able to run on anything. I think what you both are saying is that you don't like that turf horses can handle running on synthetic.So,guess what happens when you have a surface that allows traditional dirt and turf horses to compete together? Big competitive fields. Regardless of which horses like it,they can run more often on it than they can on dirt (ESPECIALLY THE DIRT WE HAD OUT HERE.)

[kgar311]

Originally Posted by SCUDSBROTHER

If Zenyata handled Anita and OP,then Curlin should be able to do it,too. The really good horses are supposed to be able to run on anything. I think what you both are saying is that you don't like that turf horses can handle running on synthetic.So,guess what happens when you have a surface that allows traditional dirt and turf horses to compete together? Big competitive fields. Regardless of which horses like it,they can run more often on it than they can on dirt (ESPECIALLY THE DIRT WE HAD OUT HERE.)

Your right I kinda like my dirt horses to run on dirt and my turf to run on turf and not have grade 2 turf horses scaring off Curlin in the classic.

[SCUDSBROTHER]

http://www.nationalhbpa.com/NewsDisp...?STORYID=10350

..of the 92 trainers who submitted responses, 41 marked that they "strongly preferred" a synthetic surface, and 15 "preferred" a synthetic surface. There were 12 trainers who expressed "no preference," while seven responded that they "preferred" dirt and 17 "strongly preferred" dirt."

56 Socal trainers preferred synthetic, and 24 preferred dirt.Of those that have a preferrence, 7 out of 10 prefer the synthetic. Like I said, it's about 2 to 1 in favor.

[sumitas]

Some incredibly good posts scuds. Well backed up by your sources.
I recall a couple of years ago Shirrefs and Moss were against lowering the length of toe grabs. They won that battle in Cali despite the safety concerns over the length of toe grabs. Shireffs and Moss have an agenda and I don't see much safety in their stance.