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Although I previously visited DelMar about a dozen times each year, last year I started receiving TRN and I didn't play DelMar at all (it didn't help that they took little of Monmouth, because in the last year that was all that I was playing when I went there.) So I don't know how the turf course looked last year.
Here's what was said in the DelMar newsletter:
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WE'VE RENOVATED TURF COURSE FOR THE 2001 SEASON
Whether you attended in person last year or watched our races at your off-track wagering facility, you probably noticed that our turf course looked a bit the worse for wear long before the season was over. A combination of problems, from cut-worms to a fungus, contributed to its less-than-appealing look.
This certainly didn't go unnoticed by Del Mar's management and we recently completed a major renovation of the turf course. We expect to offer a safe, and durable -- and beautiful -- grass surface on opening day.
The renovation, which included the planting of approximately an acre of new sod through the stretch, was the first extensive repair of the course since the banking of its turns in 1986
We brought in turf authority Leif Dickinson last October to oversee the renovations. Dickinson, who is the turf and grounds supervisor at Santa Anita, also works on the turf course at Golden Gate Fields and has served
as a supervisor or consultant on turf courses around the country.
Following the sod removal and replacement, the entire turf course was seeded with Kikuyu and then top dressed with a mixture of soil and turf grids.
In addition to the work directly on the turf course, our crews also fine tuned the track's new irrigation system, focusing its spray and thereby shortening its flow time. The course watering this year has been aided by a wet winter with above average rainfall.
All told, the track spent more than $125,000 on the renovation project.
Work is already underway on getting the dirt surface in top shape as well.
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