Hawthorne cancels

[Show Me the Wire]

again due to unsafe track conditions of its dirt track. Also, it seems Hawthorne has a habit of canceling after running the second race. Time for synthetic?

[ArlJim78]

a lot of fog here this afternoon, but that really shouldn't cause them to cancel.

it seems like it the bar has been lowered in terms of cancellations. used to be they would run come hell or high water, now its another story altogether.

[Marshall Bennett]

I'd rather miss a few days of racing than go the synthetic route . Arlington and Keeneland were ruined by the crap !! Oh ... but the drainage is fine ... who cares if the handicapping stinks !!

[gillenr]

I doubt HAW can go synthetic because they run trots.

[Show Me the Wire]

Very true gillenr.

[Steve 'StatMan']

I definitely agree about the dual use, TB/Harness.

Plus, sadly, Hawthorne really is in no position to spend $8-$10+ Million on a project like that. Their main hope for survival is slots, and it looks like the State of IL will want $50,000 per slot machine plus over 50% of the profits, if it ever actually does get approved. Would need at least $50 Million just to pay the State to permit 1,000 slot machines.

Just wildly speculating, I can't say the existing track, plant & land, without slots, would sell for over $40 million. Maybe if they threw in their share of the OTBs it would be closer to it. It's the hopes of slots that keeps them in business right now, and holds off any sale. Spending $8-$10 Million on a synthetic wouldn't make sense, esp. with the future unresolved. Better to relocate & rebuild with synthetic from scratch if they ever willing to spend that kind of money on the racing surface.

I sense they made the track surface situation worse overall by adding the clay mix back into the sand - in past years they were running pure sandy loam (sand + organic materials) Pure sand dries faster, and was used at AP & HAW up until this year. But this is a temperature thaw-up they commonly get in the Spring & Winter (HAW & old Sportsman's Days) when the temperature rises around the freezing level - had a lot of that lately, and will for the near future as well. But a lot the local horsemen & owners didn't like running on just sand, or at Hawthorne, or both, so they probably made a change to try to contrast themselves with AP & try to gain/retain horses in the hope they stay or delay their winter moves to other locations (Keeneland & Turfway's Polytrack, & the warm-weather winter tracks).

Anyway, with Hawthorne, I can't see them running anything but some variation of dirt.

[Zaf]

I think they can run Harness races over Tapeta Footings if it is compacted. I believe this has already been tested.

Z