Santa Anita Cancels Thursday Card; LATEST: Racing Suspended

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by jms62

^^^
This

Insincere is putting it mildly. Outrageous that they basically blaming the victim. Do they think people and the press are dumb enough to not ask the question why horses are not breaking down at their other tracks and all tracks in general at the rate they are at Santa Anita? They need to shut it down for the season, rebuild the track from scratch and move the Breeders Cup. How can they and Breeders Cup proceed and risk the potential death blow that the sport would face if we had one or more incidents during Breeders Cup?

I could be wrong but I don't think there is anything wrong with the track. Rock-hard, sealed tracks are dangerous. It has been raining for over half the meet. The track is constantly being sealed. I think that is the main reason there have been more breakdowns this meet. I think they need to stop sealing the track. In general it is much safer for horses to run on a deep, muddy track than a rock-hard, sealed track.

I remember the old days back in the late 70s and early 80s when they used to have some of those crazy muddy tracks. I remember one day the track was listed as "heavy". I think they ran a mile in about 1:45. There were a couple of bad things about those "muddy" tracks and "heavy" tracks. There were always tons of scratches. Most of the fields were 4 and 5 horse fields. The winner would sometimes win by 20 lengths and the 2nd horse would beat the 3rd horse by 15 lengths. Some horses hated these tracks and couldn't handle them at all. Other horses would love these tracks. That was why the fields were often times so spread out.

I don't remember ever seeing a breakdown on one of those tracks. The problem was that the fans hated all the 4 and 5 horse fields and they didn't like horses winning races by 20 lengths and other horses getting beat by 40 lengths. It was bad for business. The handle was low on these days. In addition, when it rained really hard, it would take the track many days to recover. The track could get really messed up. So they solved this by sealing the track. That way the track would stay fast. Water would not get into the track. The water would just sit on top of the rock-hard track. Instead of the track being so slow, they would often times get track records on these sloppy tracks.

I always thought these sealed tracks were dangerous. I hated running horses on sealed tracks. When it was my call, I would usually scratch a horse rather than running on a sealed track. Anyway, with the disproportionate amount of rain we have had this winter in Southern California, the track has been sealed this meet far more than normal. I think that is the most likely cause of the increase in breakdowns. I think they should stop sealing the track. If you have a day when it is supposed to rain 2-3 inches and they feel that they have to seal the track, then I think they should cancel the races that day. I don't think they should race or train on a sealed track.