“The window of opportunity for dirt has closed,” said Mandella

[andymays]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...far-from-over/

Excerpt:

“The window of opportunity for dirt has closed,” said Mandella, another Hall of Famer.


Excerpt:

“It (dirt) is not an option,” Turrell said. “The horse population is so fragile that we need to just get through these times. I believe we’re getting through these times because of these surfaces. It’s a new survival.”

[andymays]

Stunning comments.

[Audioslavery]

Interesting to see it from a SoCal trainer in spite of the recent breakdowns at Del Mar.

[lamboguy]

to me the tough part about sythetic is when you have to switch into it. when you train your horses in ocala and ship them to any pollytrack you are asking for trouble. the solution to the soft tissue injuries might be to train on synthetic to start out with. i have experienced 2 broken tivia's with my california experiment. we have had a bunch of horses get injured in woodbine as well. they are all in florida recovering from injury's. its probably something wrong that we did in training these horses in preparation for synthetic.

we are not having any problems like the ones on synthetic on the horses that we send to regular dirt. the horses that we have put out in the past have run for years with the bottoms that we put into them in florida. i find that if i send them to synthetic i am lucky if i even get a race out of them.

i have no idea what planet mandella or carla gaines is from. maybe they have figured how to keep their horses together on synthetic. maybe they can share their secrets. i know that carla has been outperforming the other trainers out there.

anyway i feel very stupid saying the same thing over and over again. but the truth is that since the advent of synthetic race track handles are dramatically down. there are people that have quit the game because of synthetic. i see horses everyday that i have had as baby's that are running some place at 9 and winning.

[Jasonm921]

This is why California racing is failing.

[CincyHorseplayer]

I am so glad that when I wake up in the morning I'm on east coast time and I don't have to deal with BS!!!

[Tom]

Wonder how much he is getting paid to say that?

[RaceBookJoe]

Originally Posted by Tom

Wonder how much he is getting paid to say that?

Makes you wonder huh. rbj

[carlonr]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

to me the tough part about sythetic is when you have to switch into it. when you train your horses in ocala and ship them to any pollytrack you are asking for trouble. the solution to the soft tissue injuries might be to train on synthetic to start out with. i have experienced 2 broken tivia's with my california experiment. we have had a bunch of horses get injured in woodbine as well. they are all in florida recovering from injury's. its probably something wrong that we did in training these horses in preparation for synthetic.

we are not having any problems like the ones on synthetic on the horses that we send to regular dirt. the horses that we have put out in the past have run for years with the bottoms that we put into them in florida. i find that if i send them to synthetic i am lucky if i even get a race out of them.

i have no idea what planet mandella or carla gaines is from. maybe they have figured how to keep their horses together on synthetic. maybe they can share their secrets. i know that carla has been outperforming the other trainers out there.

anyway i feel very stupid saying the same thing over and over again. but the truth is that since the advent of synthetic race track handles are dramatically down. there are people that have quit the game because of synthetic. i see horses everyday that i have had as baby's that are running some place at 9 and winning.

It's not only Gaines and Mandella. There are others who are not as vocal.

[The_Knight_Sky]

Originally Posted by Tom

Wonder how much he is getting paid to say that?

Maybe not paid but people like Barry Abrams benefit by having an interest in a prolific synthetic sire such as Unusual Heat.

As for Ms. Gaines, I am not sure what her line of thinking is but Mr. Mandella
has been on the wrong ship from the very beginning:

from September 2006:

http://chrb.ca.gov/press_releases/20...ss_release.pdf

[46zilzal]

The WHOLE game is collapsing around them and they continue to split hairs. THE BREED is weak not the surface they run on. EXACERBATE it with drugs.....They all continue to miss the boat..the problem is in the breeding shed not the surface they run upon.

[jelly]

I'm sure the California Racetrack reporters will have some follow up questions for Mr.mandella.

[The_Knight_Sky]

Originally Posted by jelly

I'm sure the California Racetrack reporters will have some follow up questions for Mr.mandella.

Sure hope so.
There must be more to the story if there are still a few folks who remain adamant in their support for a failed product.

“I saw a magazine article the other day from 50 years ago that was calling for safer racetracks for horses,” Mitchell said. “Fifty years later, and nothing has changed. To me, the breakdowns are just as bad, if not worse. You’re dealing with hind-leg problems that you never dealt with before. Everyone has them. A lot of statistics are just a portion of breakdowns. We work them and take them back to the barn, and 30 minutes later they can’t walk. These tracks are terrible, and I’m sick of them.”

Mitchell said he hoped to hear soon “that Santa Anita is going back to a dirt track, and then the rest of them go back to dirt, too.”

That’s not likely to happen anytime soon. The California Horse Racing Board mandated that all of California’s major tracks switch to synthetic surfaces before the 2007 season. Horse deaths due to injuries on dirt surfaces were the reason.


And these reporters must as the CHRB why this mandate has not been formally repealed. There should be no grey areas at this point.

[letswastemoney]

Not surprising Barry Abrams prefers polytrack...considering his stable is full of Unusual Heats, a turf sire!!

With synthetic tracks, he has twice the options of where to run his horses. But if they went back to dirt, his Unusual Heats would run up the track.

[The_Knight_Sky]

Originally Posted by letswastemoney

Not surprising Barry Abrams prefers polytrack...
considering his stable is full of Unusual Heats, a turf sire!!

But I wonder what Carla Gaines stands to gain from the continuation of synthetics racing. The majority of Cali horsemen have crossed the line and come to a conclusion that the window of opportunity for synthetics have closed. And they are correct.

The most nonsense that still gets quoted was that the previous "dirt tracks" were broken.
Well according to several horsemen in the article it was because
wood byproducts were added to the main track. So they weren't really dirt tracks to begin with.

Sound familiar?
Adding foreign substances to the main track.

Mr. Stronach would be wise enough to bring in a modern version of a main track and reap the benefits of being the only SoCal racetrack that caters to horses that were bred for and trained for traditional American main track racing.

As it stands the Southern California continues to dish out black type
to the stakes winners in races that continue to diminish in importance on the American racing calendar. Also of importance is for California to have a surface that produces quality dirt 3 year olds prepping for the Triple Crown series.

California hasn't exactly distinquished themselves in the Triple Crown series the past few years. Wonder no more.