Santa Anita Holds Talks on Polytrack

Horsemen, racetrack operators and members of the California Horse Racing Board learned about Polytrack on Tuesday at Santa Anita at the first of three informational meetings on synthetic track surfaces.

At its February meeting, the CHRB, citing safety concerns, decided to require replacement of dirt tracks with synthetic racing surfaces at thoroughbred tracks in the state with meets longer than four weeks. Such tracks have until the end of 2007 to comply or face the loss of racing dates. Turf courses are not affected by the regulation.

Polytrack, the subject of Tuesday’s 90-minute presentation, is in use on the training track at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., and both the training track and main track at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

The new regulation faces a 45-day period of public comment, beginning April 7, before it can take effect. Legislation is being proposed to address funding if the regulation is approved. For example, it is estimated that it would cost $7.7 million to install Polytrack at Del Mar, a track that has been researching a change.

Nick Nicholson, the president and chief executive of Keeneland, which will begin its spring meet April 7, was at Santa Anita, and Bob Ellison of Turfway Park participated by conference call and through videotaped remarks. Polytrack was installed on Keeneland’s training track in 2004 and its installation is scheduled for the main track this summer.

According to Nicholson, Polytrack, a mixture of sand, fibers and recycled rubber all coated with wax, is safer than traditional dirt. He said two veterinarians, Susan Stover of UC Davis and Michael Peterson of the University of Maine, had given preliminary assessments that Polytrack was safer for horses and jockeys.

According to statistics offered at the meeting, there have been three catastrophic injuries to horses at Turfway since last August, when Polytrack was installed, compared to 20 during the same period the previous year on the old dirt surface.

Handle is also up considerably at the track, which hasn’t had any weather-related cancellations, a previous problem.

There have been concerns that soft-tissue injuries to horses have increased on the Polytrack, but Nicholson said there was little hard data. He said Keeneland would conduct a survey and would seek input from veterinarians about potential problems with the surface.

The next informational meetings at Santa Anita are scheduled for Tuesday and April 4.

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Funeral services for trainer John Sullivan are scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m. at Holy Angels Church in Arcadia. Sullivan died of cancer Tuesday. He was 77.

Sullivan began training in Southern California in 1970 after spending several years in Illinois. His top horses included Forzando, The Bart, Vernon Castle and Yashgan.