When was the Pro ride put down at SA last year - Horse Racing Forum - PaceAdvantage.Com

so.cal.fan · 12-25-2008, 07:03 PM

It was sometime in Jan. after the old cushion track got flooded and they were even thinking of going to Hollywood.
The reason I ask is a friend sent me this email:
"What was the date that Santa Anita laid down the new surface? The reason I ask is this. Georgie Boy did not seem to be as comfortable in the Damascus as he was in the San Felipe."

Anyone remember this and can help me give my friend an answer?
Thanks,

levinmpa · 12-25-2008, 07:09 PM

Santa Anita had originally planned on putting in Pro Ride the Tuesday following the Sunshine Millions, but they got more rain and it got pushed back a week to 10 days. I believe the process started in the first week of February and took about a week to complete. My guess is that the first racing on Pro Ride was the 2nd week in February.

so.cal.fan · 12-25-2008, 07:58 PM

Thanks, I'm sure that is about right. It was a stressful time for us, we didn't know if they would race at SA or not. Thanks goodness the stuff worked.

cj · 12-25-2008, 09:03 PM

I could be wrong, but I thought they just added some Proride to the existing Cushion surface to do a temporary repair. Then, for the Oak Tree meet, it was 100% Proride. Like I said, I'm just going by memory...

Tom · 12-25-2008, 09:07 PM

This is how I remembered it, too. The fall meet was unique to all before it.

so.cal.fan · 12-26-2008, 12:19 PM

You guys are correct.
They did add it to repair it back in Feb. when it appeared the meet would have to be cancelled if they didn't do something drastic, they bought into these guys from Austraila and it worked well until the meet ended.
Then they dug it up and improved the base, put it down and we had a good track.
As long as we don't get drenched with rain this winter, it should hold up.
Note:
before they fixed it, many horses were going sore on the faulty track they had......this is true. So many "bounces" could have been the result of this.

Greyfox · 12-26-2008, 12:27 PM

Proride? Synthetic? Not entirely.

"According to Santa Anita President Ron Charles, the new track is “87 percent natural dirt.”"

From: http://blogs.fairplex.com/blog/race/?p=46

Robert Fischer · 12-26-2008, 01:10 PM

those were great days when you could box lesser horses like air commander and johnny eves and get huge pay days

while fan favorites like tiago or diamond stripes ate asphalt

but the racing sure was ugly

much better with the pro ride adjustment and now the full pro ride installation.
I miss my classic distance dirt races in california, but overall the racing is fairly close to turf which is generally a good thing