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Murph
03-20-2007, 04:42 AM
Arlington Park Opens 2007 Meeting on New Polytrack Surface

Installation of the new track surface is nearing completion. Arlington will be the first track to open this year with a new polytrack surface in April 2007. The surface material will be locally produced in Troy, IL and is being shipped to the track for application this month. Arlington track president Roy Arnold is proud of their investment, estimated at $10 million dollars. His comments from a recent CDI press release.

“The specific mixture of the Polytrack surface that we’ve selected has been tested at Keeneland in one of the nation’s premier race meets involving many of the best horses in the country,” added Arnold. “There have been outstanding results with no significant maintenance issues and consistent praise from the horsemen.

“With this decision, we expect to improve our quality of racing with more fit, healthier horses and by attracting more trainers with better horses, including horsemen from Keeneland who want to run their horses on Polytrack at Arlington Park too,” said Arnold.


The polytrack investment with Keeneland represents a continuing tradition of longstanding cooperative agreements between the Keeneland Racing Association and The Duchossois family as owners of Arlington Park (http://www.arlingtonpark.com/). This partnership has helped maintain the long running Chicago area meeting as one of the top Graded Stakes destinations in the world. Tenatively scheduled to open for training on April 25th, the midwest racing circut is clearly embracing polytrack conversions sooner rather than later.

Not to be out done, California is impressively moving to the modern surface. Polytrack made it's west coast debut at Hollywood Park in November 2006 with 229 poly races over the course of their meeting. The Del Mar Turf Club (http://www.dmtc.com/)is documenting their installation of polytrack with a photo journal (http://www.dmtc.com/season/polytrack.php) hosted on their website and from a Live Cam link (http://www.dmtc.com/live/webcam/cam.php) so you can watch them install the surface to make sure it is up to your standards.

If you want to learn more about the polytrack surface, what it is and why it is different than a regular dirt surface, the Del Mar links will provide a visual picture that make sure you know how these tracks are built. Del Mar racing over the new track begins in mid July. Thanks to everyone associated with the Turf Club for providing such an extensive record of your track installation. You have helped greatly to educate all North American horse racing fans.

Murph