Synthetic all-weather Surfaces - #1 Horse Racing Forum in Australia for Race-Horse News

westie

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Original Post 2007-Jun-22, 08:37 PM

Acton's weather solution leads way


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Wenona

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2009-Jan-03, 07:57 PM

I lived in the UK in the early 1990's and the high number of horse injuries was an issue then.

Does anyone know if anything was done to address those concerns?


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dubbledee

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2009-Jan-03, 08:06 PM

calgary writes ... 2009-Jan-03, 02:49 PM

dubbledee writes ... 2009-Jan-03, 08:04 AM

Synthetic are fair to those that can handle them.

I'd reckon about 10% of the galloping population are happy on the Australian synthetics, as opposed to around 95% on grass.

Any facts to back that up - what % of the horse population would have even raced on one?

No facts at all, Calgary. I said "I reckon"....That's from observations on the SE Qld horse population.....the number who start on the Cushion and the number who handle it. In some races the horses finish over a hundred metres or more.

There is not a doubt in the world that some horses handle it better than others whereas give the same horses a firm grass track and the majority handle it to the best of their ability.


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dubbledee

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2009-Jan-06, 01:19 PM

From signonsandiego.com/sports

In California, the first full year of artificial surfaces at all major tracks – mandated with the safety of horses and riders in mind – begins with the Cushion Track brand's drainage failure in January at Santa Anita. The episode costs 11 days' worth of business and produces all kinds of negativity and skepticism about synthetics that lingers through meets at Hollywood Park, Del Mar and beyond.

There are no breakdowns in October on Santa Anita's newly installed Pro-Ride surface as the Arcadia track becomes the first with a synthetic main track to host the Breeders' Cup. “The single most important thing that had to happen for this industry at this time,” Breeders' Cup Ltd. president and CEO Greg Avioli said.

But some trainers, including the dominant one of 2008, remain unsold on synthetics. Steve Asmussen, who saddled more than 600 winners, blames the fourth-place finish of reigning Horse of the Year Curlin in the Breeders' Cup Classic on the stuff.

When compared with 2007, Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar have down years at the turnstiles and betting windows – by double-figure percentages in some categories. And, while convenient to cite, the general state of the economy is only one of many factors in a business trend that doesn't show significant signs of turning.

Applying an outdoor sports saying: If 2008 had been a fish, racing would have thrown it back. Best year ever? Not by a long shot.


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dubbledee

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2009-Jan-09, 09:59 AM

From thoroughbredtimes.com

TRAINERS VOICE CONCERNS OVER SANTA ANITA'S SYNTHETIC SURFACE

by Larry Stewart

Since the opening of Santa Anita Park's winter-spring meet on December 26, concerns about the track’s synthetic Pro-Ride surface have been growing.

There were five breakdowns during the first five days of the meet, and three of those horses involved were euthanized. The other two required surgery.

Trainers have walked the track in recent days and have not liked what they have seen or felt.

The result was an impromptu meeting on Wednesday at the track that involved approximately 50 trainers and Ian Pearse, founder of the Australian company that produced the Pro-Ride surface and who oversaw the renovation of Santa Anita’s faulty Cushion Track surface early last year.

Two trainers equated Santa Anita’s synthetic track to a minefield, and one called for a return to dirt. Pearse, meanwhile, maintained his stance that proper maintenance was the answer.

The meeting was requested by the California Thoroughbred Trainers. The group’s executive director, Ed Halpern, started things off by asking for comments.

The first to speak was trainer Mark Glatt, who said he had walked the track on January 3.

"What I saw was horrifying," he said. "It's like a minefield out there. I've been lucky, but it's coming."

Asked for specifics, Glatt said he could see holes and feel soft spots.

Trainer Darrell Vienna, one of the more outspoken critics at the meeting, said synthetic surfaces started out good but have since been on a decline.

"We're headed for a place as bad or worse than where we were before," he said.

Vienna also complained about inconsistencies in the track. "It's firmer in some spots, softer in others," he said.

Mel Stute, 80, said in the past 40 years he has had 12 fatalities, with nine coming the past two years on synthetic surfaces. Later during the meeting, he got up, mumbled "I've heard enough of this. …” and left.

Veterinarian Rick Arthur, equine medical adviser for the California Horse Racing Board, told the group that fatalities are down since the installation of synthetic surfaces, and so are surgeries.

When questioned about his statistical data, Arthur suggested the trainers as a group could help by supplying data. Halpern said it would be difficult to track but that the group would do what it could in supplying timely reports.

"Some of you must have a case of amnesia," said trainer David Hoffmans, an advocate of synthetic surfaces, referring to all the fatalities and injuries on dirt.

Expressing an opposing view, trainer Bruce Headley equated training and racing on a synthetic surface to swimming across a river full of alligators. "Some of us will survive, some won't," he said.

Vienna was among those who believe that harrowing the track with heavy equipment is not the answer. "Keep the machinery off the track; it's chopping it up," he said.

Pearse, whose main point was proper maintenance, said harrowing was necessary to ensure an equal density throughout the track but admitted the less machinery used on the track the better.

"We need to have a different program now than what we had in the summer," Pearse said, citing weather differences.

The track generally got high marks during the fall Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita, which included the Breeders' Cup World Championships on October 24-25.

Pearse also told the group that he and track officials would be more judicious in monitoring the track's density.

Pearse, who pointed out that the United States is the only country where there is training and racing on the same track on the same day, said the amount of daily traffic on a synthetic surface presents a variety of problems.

"It's a whole new ballgame," he said.

When Pearse said there is much that still has to be learned, Vienna said, "Are you saying our horses are guinea pigs?"

Said Pearse: "In essence, yes."

About 1,500 horses train every morning on Santa Anita's main track.

Headley complained it is a different track after 7:30 a.m. than it is earlier in the morning before being trampled by horses.

"I think we should go completely back to dirt,” trainer Henry Moreno said. “This is the worse I've ever seen in my 58 years in racing."

Later, when Pearse was asked if he is getting the proper funding from Santa Anita to do what needs to be done, he said, "I've not asked for any money."

Chimed in Moreno: "Damn fool."

Vladimir Cerin, saying at first he was supportive of the move to synthetic surfaces, also equated the situation to "walking through a minefield."

"The question is, ‘Who will be next?’ " he said. "I don't know how to fix it. I just can't have it the way it is."

Bob Baffert, a critic of synthetic tracks, said there is some good that has come out of the situation

“We've brought science into our sport. We're just not where we want to be."


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zeditave

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2009-Jan-11, 09:06 AM

blames the fourth-place finish of reigning Horse of the Year Curlin in the Breeders' Cup Classic on the stuff.

Of course it came down to another surface.... the horse is brilliant on dirt and just good on anything else. Just like you'll find countless top horses who won't run on track conditions other than what suits them.


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dubbledee

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2009-Jan-12, 11:22 AM

From signonsandiego.com

SYNTHETIC-SURFACE CONCERNS REIGNITE
Hank Wesch

It's on again at Santa Anita.

The debate and controversy over California's mandated switch to synthetic racing surfaces, destined to be revisited more than the “Rocky” movie series, has had another flare-up.

The cause this time: a rash of breakdowns, five in the first five days, three of them fatal at a meeting that began Dec. 26. A meeting on a Pro-Ride surface that Santa Anita had installed after the failure of the Cushion Track brand a year ago. A Pro-Ride surface that had been given a good performance rating through the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting and Breeders' Cup programs in October.

About 40 trainers met with Pro-Ride executive Ian Pearse on Wednesday to voice their concerns. Pearse was credited with saving the 2007-08 Santa Anita meeting from total disaster by overseeing an emergency repair on the Cushion Track when it failed to drain properly after winter rains, costing the track 11 racing days.

This time, Pearse was in from Australia to solve problems with his product and hear from a bunch of concerned horsemen. A portion of them, at least, were former synthetics supporters who apparently had been pushed past the tipping point by the problems with surfaces mandated by the California Horse Racing Board for all major tracks in the state starting last year.

Unintentionally, Darrell Vienna, who has gone from skeptic to believer to disbeliever, became the spokesman.

“They're no good,” Vienna told magazine, referring to synthetic surfaces. “The promises at the beginning were (that) they were safe, consistent, maintenance-free, and all-weather. They are not safe, they're not maintenance-free, they're not consistent, and they can't take water. None of it is true.”

Contacted yesterday by phone, Vienna said he had gone from synthetics skeptic – “Because I didn't think we had enough knowledge about what we were getting into” – to believer over the first season of Polytrack at Del Mar, when injuries, fatal and non, went down dramatically.

But subsequent synthetic problems at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and yes, Del Mar, caused Vienna to change his opinion.

“The first year at Del Mar was very safe, but I thought last year they somewhat sacrificed that safety on the altar of consistency and speed,” Vienna said.

Vienna said he has sympathy for Santa Anita and the other tracks and commends them for the good-faith efforts to install the synthetics and do what they can to make them as safe as they can.

But the tracks had surfaces forced upon them, Vienna said, that he now believes contain too many “variables” to ever be worked out to satisfaction.

“We're told that the choice is to go forward with synthetics, or go back to dirt, and I don't think those should be the only choices,” Vienna said. “We should look for something better, something different, with as much speed as we can but without another rush to judgment.”

It's not just a California problem. In December, Turfway Park in Kentucky had eight fatal breakdowns in 21 racing cards over its Polytrack surface.

Supporters of synthetics, and there still are many, say no surface will ever be totally successful in stopping breakdowns. That they're still a work in progress, especially because each venue is an entity unto itself in terms of geographic and weather conditions.

Meanwhile, the racing goes on. Stay tuned for “Rocky XXXXII.”


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dubbledee

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2009-Jan-12, 11:24 AM

Unintentionally, Darrell Vienna, who has gone from skeptic to believer to disbeliever, became the spokesman.

“They're no good,” Vienna told magazine, referring to synthetic surfaces. “The promises at the beginning were (that) they were safe, consistent, maintenance-free, and all-weather. They are not safe, they're not maintenance-free, they're not consistent, and they can't take water. None of it is true.”

unsure


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dubbledee

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2009-Jan-16, 10:34 AM

From www.thesaratogian.com

Eclipse should make room for synthetics
by Brendan O'Meara

There are 20 or so categories at the Eclipse Awards for thoroughbred excellence awarded every January.

There should be two more.

There’s an Eclipse, in essence, for dirt horses (namely all categories except grass), and there are champion turf horses, both male and female.

Now it is widely known, at this point in the artificial surface experiment, that Polytrack, Pro Ride, Cushion Track, Tapeta, whatever, that they are not dirt.

In light of this, there should be an Eclipse Award for Champion Synthetic Horse (for clarity’s sake, it will have to be assumed, or understood, that we are not actually talking about a synthetic horse, in this instance).

We are finding that there are horses that have little-to-no success on any surface but a synthetic one.

See Go Between.

Even trainer Bill Mott admitted that a horse like Go Between has his niche and it is on the fake stuff.

Whether you like synthetic surfaces or not is no reason to neglect this category because, bottom line, these surfaces are here to stay.

And as horses like the late Go Between, Dominican and others go to the breeding shed, there will be lines of descendents that will only be good on these surfaces, thus propagating the likelihood that certain horses will only run on synthetics, because that is the only way they will ever make money.

The same reasoning goes for turf horses. They seldom cross over. A horse is either a dirt horse or a turf horse. These days, a horse can be either a dirt, a turf or a synthetic horse (as if it wasn’t hard enough to find out where a horse would succeed with just dirt and grass as the options, now this).

In this past week’s issue of The Blood Horse, there was an advertisement for Zanjero — an unlikely millionaire — and on this ad, it mentions that he was proven on dirt, even won on synthetics.

As this becomes more and more commonplace, there will be more and more specialization, more selection for horsemen and their connections.

An Eclipse for this category, too, would make the voting increasingly interesting when Breeders’ Cup races are held at tracks with synthetic surfaces. The 2009 Breeders’ Cup is already slotted for Santa Anita.

If you were to look at this year’s winners, one could make a hypothetical ballot with Raven’s Pass at the top for Champion Synthetic Horse. And why not?

This could open the door for Champion Female Synthetic Horse as well. It would have to.

To further complicate matters, there could a slippery slope of awards. This would, in many ways, become ridiculous. Where would one stop? Champion Juvenile Synthetic Horse? Champion Juvenile Synthetic Female Horse? You get the picture.

Keeping it simple to male and female synthetic champions would serve the game well. These awards are a reflection of the sport. Dirt and turf are visible in racing’s mirror, while synthetics act as if like they are vampires, unable to be seen through the same looking glass.

Nick Zito can probably see that last sentence as A) evidence that Polytrack, et al, has no place in this game and B) that synthetics are the surface of the undead.

Sometimes we see horses that can cross over and succeed on more than one surface, but as Monba showed us by winning the Blue Grass and finished last in the Derby, this is far from habit, or far from possible.

Should there be this extra category, it will give donkeys like Monba something to look forward to come January besides their Monday morning workout at Palm Meadows.


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dubbledee

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2009-Jan-19, 12:31 PM

From www.thoroughbredtimes.com

CHRB to study racing surfaces

The California Horse Racing Board is planning a range of studies to determine any relationships between racing surfaces and equine injuries.

The aim of the project is to improve racing surfaces, reduce injuries, and meet the CHRB’s statutory obligation to develop track safety standards for the protection of horses and riders.

In an effort to improve racetrack safety, the CHRB mandated that California’s major tracks switch from conventional dirt surfaces to synthetic surfaces by 2008. The transition has not been a seamless one, particularly at Santa Anita Park.

The Arcadia track lost 11 live dates during the 2007-’08 winter-spring meet due to drainage issues with the Cushion Track surface. Santa Anita also has had several breakdowns during the 2008-’09 meeting on the Pro-Ride surface, which replaced the Cushion Track.

CHRB Executive Director Kirk Breed outlined the project in a report to the racing commissioners on Thursday at Santa Anita.

Subject to funding approval, the CHRB will contract, equip, and train personnel for the continual inspection of all racing surfaces (dirt, turf, and synthetic). The inspections will include monitoring maintenance practices and measuring such variables as moisture content, track surface composition, and temperature. The measurements eventually will be correlated to injuries.

The board has named a safety steward for each racetrack to assist in this effort.

The project will make extensive use of the equine injury reporting database, provided through the Jockey Club’s Incompass system, which records specific racing and training data, as well as the surfaces on which reported injuries occur, official veterinarian’s list histories, and certain medication records.

Rick Arthur, D.V.M, equine medical director for the CHRB, has been working on that project and provided a preliminary report to the CHRB Medication Committee in November.

Private veterinarians will be asked to confidentially provide information about racehorse injuries that do not normally come to the attention of the official veterinarian and get recorded in the Incompass database. The Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation is considering funding this study.

Biomechanical testing, which involves the use of a machine specifically designed to simulate the action of a hoof striking the surface and/or an instrumented shoe on a horse, also will be conducted.

The official horseshoe inspector at Santa Anita has been keeping records of the various types of shoes worn by horses as they reach the receiving barn before a race. That practice will be formalized, better documented, and expanded to other racetracks so that the shoeing information can be incorporated into the larger project and correlated to racing injuries.

A pre-race examination database, which will contain all of the information gathered by official veterinarians during the required examination of horses entered to race, also is being established.

The CHRB requested a budget appropriation to develop safety standards for racing surfaces. The money would come from a special Race Track Security Fund, which is funded from uncashed vouchers.

Arthur told the board on Thursday that horse racing is losing approximately 3% to 4% of its horse population each month. The national cost is estimated at $100-million monthly. It is not known how many of these horses lost to racing were injured or retired because they were noncompetitive, sent to breed, or started non-racing careers.

Arthur said data collected about injuries on synthetic surfaces has been reliable for determining racing fatalities, not lesser injuries, though the injury data will improve as the studies go forward.


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dubbledee

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2009-Jan-22, 05:15 PM

Victorians....

Is it true that RVL have suspended racing on synthetics pending the outcome of a study commissioned by them?


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MagiC~*

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2009-Jan-22, 09:47 PM

Finally people are doing the sensible thing and doing studies on these surfaces and the effect they have on horses soundness.

Been asking for this since we lost a few horses in a short time on the Cushion ...... was more than just coincidence, but kept getting, it is a cushion track don't be so stupid, it is the best thing for horses since sliced bread mad


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