Santa Anita Injuries; Trainers meet, complain

[Danzig]

Vienna later stated, “After this meeting, I have no confidence that Ian Pearse can fix this track. Trainers don’t want to drive off owners by saying these tracks are no good, but the problems we had with dirt tracks haven’t been cured. We still have the disease, just with different injuries. The trajectory of these synthetic surfaces is they get worse over time.”

Extra maintenance may not necessarily work on Santa Anita’s surface, because, trainers say, the harrowing equipment tends to break up the track’s ingredients.

“They are going to try and manipulate the track to make it work,” said Vienna. “We should be planning to put in a better one; doing the groundwork to find out what works and is sustainable. Synthetic surfaces are not sustainable.”



it's not as tho these surfaces can be completely changed out year to year. the cost would be astronomical. things is, these synthetics work overseas--has anyone bothered to compare the amount of runners a day over there to the amounts over here? i bet they don't compare. we all know that euros mostly run on turf, that most of their turf meets are short, as a turf course can't survive a lot of racing. i think the sheer volume here is the main problem with these tracks. they aren't maintainable, they have too much traffic on them to last for very long.
it's a huge mess.

and i also think cannon has a point. only in the last few years have people paid much attention to injuries/fatalities. i wonder if the %'s have changed over the years.

[Left Bank]

Put the dirt back but keep the drainage system installed underneath.That shouldn't cost much.

[pick4]

An unfortunate thing about horse racing is sometimes horses breakdown.
Sometimes they happen because a horse has a injury that the trainer can detect prior to running the horse. Sometimes a horse just takes a bad step.

I think once there is large enough of a sample size on synthetics, the breakdown numbers will be very close to what they are on dirt tracks.

[Danzig]

perhaps santa anita and golden gate need to look at hollywood park and del mars surfaces. i think hollywood has had no trouble at all, and del mar apparently got their surface figured out.

[Cannon Shell]

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/nat...-injuries.aspx

They best line was they are sending soil samples out to be tested. For what exactly? Unsafe soil traces? CSI Fairgrounds?

[FGFan]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/nat...-injuries.aspx

They best line was they are sending soil samples out to be tested. For what exactly? Unsafe soil traces? CSI Fairgrounds?

That is kinda funny CSI Fairgrounds, but at least they are doing something.
It is a very high amount of fatalities here.
I do know this the breakdowns are occuring in the same area. I also noticed the other day that the track stayed very, very wet which is unusual, there wasn't that much rain and it normally dries out really quickly. Puzzling...Bob Fortus article says the new track supervisor went and checked the area and said it was just a freak thing...freak thing to me is that it was in the exact same spot, seems to me they should really be checking that area out. Maybe the snow changed the surface.
I'm going today and going to ask on the backside what they really are thinking.

[Pedigree Ann]

Originally Posted by Kimmeastar

Put the dirt back but keep the drainage system installed underneath.That shouldn't cost much.

And bar toe grabs.

[Cannon Shell]

I guess the evil toe grabs have to go again...


http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...ike-at-turfway

As I have stated here before, all the hand wringing over breakdown rates and trying to determine the causes is a huge waste of time. Turfway this winter is a great example. First there were alot of breakdowns compared to previous years, then there werent hardly any, now there are a lot again. let me guess that March there wont be many...

They are trying to find the magic bullet, toe grabs, surfaces, medication, vet checks, whips, etc. There is none. Why they continue to publicize this information is beyond me.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

What kind of shoes do you like using on your horses and why do they work so much better on off tracks?

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

What kind of shoes do you like using on your horses and why do they work so much better on off tracks?

Horse shoes.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Horse shoes.

Don't make me ask Slewis from PA.

[Riot]

As I have stated here before, all the hand wringing over breakdown rates and trying to determine the causes is a huge waste of time

Thankfully, from a sportsmedicine standpoint, the minority opinion.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Riot

Thankfully, from a sportsmedicine standpoint, the minority opinion.

Yeah well sports medicine hasn't done a whole hell of a lot to change breakdown rates over the years. If you cant see that publishing monthly breakdown rates is a waste of time and leads people to draw completely unfounded conclusions that that is your cross to bear. Simply releasing data can do nothing but further confuse the issue.

[Riot]

Yeah well sports medicine hasn't done a whole hell of a lot to change breakdown rates over the years.

Who still buys yearlings with multiple vascular channels showing in their sesamoids on the prepurchase rads?

Does anyone keep a big growthy young colt at pasture with virtually no breaking or work at all until he's three? Do people feed that big growthy colt high protein to make him grow more quickly?

Anybody still use 6mm toe rims?

Do most give a horse starting with little bit of sore shins complete pasture rest for 60 days, or work him through it?

If you cant see that publishing monthly breakdown rates is a waste of time and leads people to draw completely unfounded conclusions that that is your cross to bear. Simply releasing data can do nothing but further confuse the issue.

In some eyes they are damned if they do (release data) and damned if they don't (evil hiding of data).

IMO, the more info out there, the better.