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Santa Anita Racecourse May Go Back To Dirt - 02-27-08
February 27 - Ron Charles, president of the Santa Anita racetrack said they are thinking about substituting the synthetic track with dirt later on in the year. He said that options were still being considered and that nothing had been finalized yet.
Due to excessive rain in January and February, Santa Anita had to cancel a total of 11 days of racing. The synthetic surface, Cushion Track, was not able to cope with the deluge of rain and failed to drain sufficiently for races to take place without endangering both horses and jockeys. As previously reported, the track was resurfaced with the Australian Pro-Ride surface which has thus far born up very well; even under about half an inch of rain this past Sunday.
Since the resurface of the track there have been no cancellations at Santa Anita.
Chairman of California Horse Racing, Richard Shapiro has given his initial support to the option of changing the track back to dirt. In the past he has been a big proponent for the introduction of synthetic tracks throughout California, however he said that if Santa Anita decided that in order to keep riders and horses safe a new dirt track needed to be created on top of a decent base, then he was not completely opposed to the idea.
This is the worst kind of corporate hypocrisy of course - they can choose between more horse racing fatalities and fewer cancelled meetings or a safer track where far fewer horses will die but they can race all the time and generate those dollars. Which option do you think they'll go for?
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