Quote:
Originally Posted by dilanesp
That's not the actual reason Bay Meadows closed, cj. They were owned by the same company that closed Hollywood Park, and which INSTALLED a synthetic track at Hollywood Park. The owner bought the two tracks for the purpose of closing them. So they were going to close whether or not they got a dispensation to keep their dirt track.
The most important reason Bay Meadows closed is because land on the peninsula, fairly close to Silicon Valley and SFO airport, is just enormously valuable now.
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Of course the land was more valuable. But why go through the motions of trying to race on dirt if they didn't plan to do it? I'm sure it would have been sold eventually but I don't think it was imminent before the synthetic mandate. Can say the same of a lot of tracks out there now.
As for Arlington, switching to synthetic dropped it off the radar for a lot of handicappers in my opinion. It is one thing when the whole circuit is synthetic like SoCal was or for tracks that are isolated like Woodbine and Presque Isle. But people lose interest when horses are switching back and forth from dirt to synth every few months and it becomes more of a guessing game than handicapping.
