Santa Anita surface to undergo renovation

[andymays]

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/63075/santa-anita-dirt-track-to-undergo-renovation


Excerpt:

Ted Malloy, track consultant for MI Developments, which owns Santa Anita, said at the hearing that Santa Anita proposes removing 2 1/2” of the surface. More sand will be added to bring the surface back to the original specifications.

“We didn’t get what we planned to get,” Malloy said. “The first day we raced on it, it was super. I walked the track today and I hate it.”

Excerpt:

During an informal California Horse Racing Board hearing at Santa Anita May 17, representatives from the CHRB, Santa Anita, and the California Thoroughbred Trainers agreed that the silt and clay content in the dirt surface is now too high. The mixture should be 87.5% sand, 8% silt, and 4.5% clay. But after a month of racing and following bouts of heavy rain, tests last January showed that the combined silt and clay content rose to 18-19%.

Read more: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/63075/santa-anita-dirt-track-to-undergo-renovation#ixzz1MhlFEB8g

[macguy]

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/63075/santa-anita-dirt-track-to-undergo-renovation


Excerpt:

Ted Malloy, track consultant for MI Developments, which owns Santa Anita, said at the hearing that Santa Anita proposes removing 2 1/2” of the surface. More sand will be added to bring the surface back to the original specifications.

“We didn’t get what we planned to get,” Malloy said. “The first day we raced on it, it was super. I walked the track today and I hate it.”

Excerpt:

During an informal California Horse Racing Board hearing at Santa Anita May 17, representatives from the CHRB, Santa Anita, and the California Thoroughbred Trainers agreed that the silt and clay content in the dirt surface is now too high. The mixture should be 87.5% sand, 8% silt, and 4.5% clay. But after a month of racing and following bouts of heavy rain, tests last January showed that the combined silt and clay content rose to 18-19%.

Read more: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/63075/santa-anita-dirt-track-to-undergo-renovation#ixzz1MhlFEB8g


They are having so much trouble with the dirt track, they should try a synthetic.

[andymays]

They are having so much trouble with the dirt track, they should try a synthetic.

Actually I wouldn't mind if anyone copied Hollywoods surface. It's pretty fair and it's about half dirt and half synthetic.

[Seabiscuit@AR]

Well Santa Anita did have a cushion track as their first choice of synthetic track but it did not work. Last I heard there was talk of Santa Anita suing the Cushion people over it

[gm10]

Maybe they should throw some polymers on it. That worked well before.

[andymays]

Well Santa Anita did have a cushion track as their first choice of synthetic track but it did not work. Last I heard there was talk of Santa Anita suing the Cushion people over it

The Hollywood surface is unique. They have analyzed it recently and are trying to maintain the mixture of whatever is in there.

[pandy]

I hope they fix this, the track they ran on this winter was dangerously unsafe, inconsistent, and just an overall embarrassing disgrace. I felt particularly bad for Tokubetsu and his owners. Tokubetsu was a Baffert horse by Congaree who was running a monstrous race to break his maiden when he broke down and had to be euthanized.

[Spalding No!]

“We didn’t get what we planned to get,” Malloy said. “The first day we raced on it, it was super. I walked the track today and I hate it.”

Gonna take this quote with a grain of salt. The first day of racing saw The Bid's 7f track record broken, Ruhlmann's mile track record was nearly broke, and a couple of days later the 6f mark was broke in a maiden race. Not sure that would have been ideal for the rest of the meet.