Del Mar...OFF the turf thru Sun. Aug. 3rd...

[sammy the sage]

Del Mar's Twitter

@DelMarRacing: URGENT: Turf races moved to the polytrack for the remainder of the week. More info to come.

https://www.dmtc.com/media/news/turf...er-of-week-184

Press release from Del Mar

""Del Mar Thoroughbred Club feels deep sorrow and great concern following a further injury on our turf course during racing on Thursday afternoon.

We continue to be of the belief that Del Mars turf course is safe for our horses and riders. Our crews have performed extensive maintenance measures to enhance that safety and those measures and the course itself met with the approval of safety officials from the California Horse Racing Board this past Tuesday.

Nonetheless, given this additional injury on our turf course, we now will discontinue racing on it for the remained of this week. We will continue efforts to improve the course during this down time and hope to resume racing on it in the near future.""

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by sammy the sage

We continue to be of the belief that Del Mars turf course is safe for our horses and riders.

I wonder what the trainers and jockeys had to say about that.

Good thing they have such a great poly track for all their races now. Or not. From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

The beast that is the Polytrack continues to disrupt Del Mar.

The Polytrack has been safe, but trainers and jockeys are aware of an inside speed bias that was present for two weeks last year. Once a speed horse gets out and into the inside lanes, closers are finding it impossible to catch and pass them.

Track superintendent Richard Tedesco ordered wax to be applied on the track to help cool and tighten it during racing hours, but there’s been a delay in the wax getting to Del Mar. Instead of applying it Monday as hoped, Tedesco said the wax won’t get here until July 28, a week later than planned. The earliest he could apply it would be the next day, Tuesday, also a dark day at Del Mar without racing.

“It’s being brought by truck from Philadelphia, and they have to stop every so often to heat it and keep it melted,” Tedesco said. “It takes six days to get it here.”

Tedesco will be glad when the Polytrack, now in its eighth season at Del Mar, is ripped out after the November meeting and replaced with El Segundo sand from the excavation sites for new runways at Los Angeles Airport. Santa Anita is adding the same exact material to its track, so next year, all Southern California tracks will be dirt.

“I can’t wait,” Tedesco said. “Not that you can’t have some problems with dirt, but they’re a lot less than dealing with this. It’s one thing after another with this track.”

Blood-Horse reports that the wax was added to the track on July 29.

[Tom]

Pathetic.
You run 6 lousy weeks a year and you can't get the GD wax in your hands on time?

Who got fired for this?
Someone should.

[burnsy]

Well, there were several posters raving about the "facilities" out there....calling Belmont a dump. Like this has not happened before. Between SA and Del Mar I should look up how many horses have died and how many races that have been cancelled due to "dangerous track conditions". Damn the facts, it's a joke when these internet people run their mouths. There is a history of these surfaces being bad for years now. Before the poly even got there. Of course, that was a total cluster f@ck too! Oh, but it doesn't rain there. That's what they are worried about?.....the freakin weather? What's their BC marketing slogan going to be?

"Bring your Grade 1 horse here......they're dying to enter."

[Fingal]

I'd say Joe Harper gots some 'splaining to do to thems Breeder's Cup people.

They can not be too pleased over the current state of events.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by burnsy

Well, there were several posters raving about the "facilities" out there....calling Belmont a dump. Like this has not happened before. Between SA and Del Mar I should look up how many horses have died and how many races that have been cancelled due to "dangerous track conditions". Damn the facts, it's a joke when these internet people run their mouths. There is a history of these surfaces being bad for years now. Before the poly even got there. Of course, that was a total cluster f@ck too! Oh, but it doesn't rain there. That's what they are worried about?.....the freakin weather? What's their BC marketing slogan going to be?

"Bring your Grade 1 horse here......they're dying to enter."

Santa Anita had awful problems with Poly, because of drainage, but the dirt and grass courses perform reasonably well.

Del Morgue, before this season, was one of the safest tracks in America with its old turf course and Poly. When Del Morgue had dirt, it was much less safe.

I don't think Belmont's a dump at all. I think it's a great place to host the BC. But there are serious impasses between NYRA and the BC, and the BC also makes a lot less money there than it does at other tracks.

Having said that, NYRA's tracks have a very mixed safety record themselves. What you CAN say about NYRA as opposed to Del Morgue right now is that their turf courses are not screwed up-- those nice upstate New York rains produce 2 beautiful courses at Saratoga which are both very gentle on horses' hoofs.

[Rex Phinney]

Just no excuse for the state of Del Mar's surface right now.

California tracks had to deal with a science experiment in a way with the poly tracks. Thank god those are on their way out.

This turf course thing is totally different. It's no science experiment and has went basically as awful as anyone could have imagined. This should have been a smooth transition from the old turf to the new.

Del Mar needs to take a serious look at their fair vs. racing calender. For years they have been operating as anything but a racetrack right up until the time the horses start arriving, then try to turn into a horse track overnight. When you operate like that this is what happens. Next to no preparation and right now it is showing.

[Stillriledup]

the poly there is crap right now, extreme speed/rail biases.....the added wax was supposed to make it more fair, but yesterday they had the biggest speed bias of the meet imo.

The track doesn't resemble the track we saw in 2007 where closers could come from everywhere, that's not the case anymore.

Funny how Golden Gate's tapeta is a much more fair surface, its somewhat hard to wire the field at GG, but you can...the track looks nice and plays nice, you don't see that incredible kickback flying around like you do at DMR.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by Rex Phinney

This turf course thing is totally different. It's no science experiment and has went basically as awful as anyone could have imagined. This should have been a smooth transition from the old turf to the new.

According to an article in the DRF, the new track was properly installed. The problem with it is that the installation schedule did not allow for the turf to mature to racing condition. The grass must be allowed to mature to form a safe racing surface, and that includes a solid growth season through a full summer. Good news! The course should be in great shape by about October.

The newly installed Del Mar grass course is pristine. It is impossible to take a “bad step” anywhere, any more than it would be possible to stumble on the 18th green at Augusta National. That has been the good news.

The bad news is that the newly installed Del Mar grass course is newly installed. Its root system is still taking hold. There is none of the lively bounce of a mature Bermuda course, like the one over which recent Breeders’ Cups have been run at Santa Anita.

Unfortunately, the economic tyranny of the racing calendar did not allow enough time for the new course to mature. The optimum growing season for a newly installed Bermuda grass course is July, August, and into warm September. Del Mar races in July, August, and into September.

This left course superintendent Leif Dickinson to push growth as much as he could, given the environmental restrictions on extreme fertilization options in the ecologically sensitive area surrounding Del Mar. He cut the course as often as he dared to encourage growth, all the while concerned with compacting the ground with equipment traffic. What he came up with was a course he declared as “good, and will only get better.”

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by Tom

Pathetic.
You run 6 lousy weeks a year and you can't get the GD wax in your hands on time?

Wax? Wax is for skis. Maybe the problem is that the horses are wearing waxless shoes. Put some cross-country shoes on those horses, and hot wax them.

[Rex Phinney]

Originally Posted by Stillriledup

the poly there is crap right now, extreme speed/rail biases.....the added wax was supposed to make it more fair, but yesterday they had the biggest speed bias of the meet imo.

The track doesn't resemble the track we saw in 2007 where closers could come from everywhere, that's not the case anymore.

Funny how Golden Gate's tapeta is a much more fair surface, its somewhat hard to wire the field at GG, but you can...the track looks nice and plays nice, you don't see that incredible kickback flying around like you do at DMR.

Forget the speed bias, there is a significant amount of horsemen that just don't like the surface. When you talk to trainers out here they all say how they will avoid running at Del Mar if it is possible. They all talk about soft tissue problems, that even if horses aren't breaking down on the poly, they are being sidelined from injuries.

If their biggest problem was a speed bias for a 6 week meet, we would all be better off.

[Rex Phinney]

Originally Posted by Clocker

According to an article in the DRF, the new track was properly installed. The problem with it is that the installation schedule did not allow for the turf to mature to racing condition. The grass must be allowed to mature to form a safe racing surface, and that includes a solid growth season through a full summer. Good news! The course should be in great shape by about October.

It's unacceptable either way. Part of a proper installation is a good assessment of the growth period and the challenges that come with it. They should have better known what they had when the meet started. Again if they had some horses, trainers etc. there longer than a week before the meet started they could have had an idea. They would have been better off to leave turf racing dark the first three weeks or even skip the entire meet. What they have done now is make it even worse by creating the PR nightmare.

And sending the horses back out there calling the surface safe and then another one breaks down is ridiculous. They thought they where going to fix it in 3 days???????

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by Rex Phinney

It's unacceptable either way. Part of a proper installation is a good assessment of the growth period and the challenges that come with it.

Agreed. The course superintendent had to know about the potential problems. If management went ahead despite warnings, the onus is on them.

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by Rex Phinney

Forget the speed bias, there is a significant amount of horsemen that just don't like the surface. When you talk to trainers out here they all say how they will avoid running at Del Mar if it is possible. They all talk about soft tissue problems, that even if horses aren't breaking down on the poly, they are being sidelined from injuries.

If their biggest problem was a speed bias for a 6 week meet, we would all be better off.

Can't argue.

[Dark Horse]

Let's hope they learn their lessons. Can't get any worse from here.

Man, I was looking forward to this meet. Can't wait for it to be over.