Santa Anita braces for rain

It was calm before the storm at Santa Anita on Thursday as horses galloped comfortably on the new synthetic track while the Arcadia facility braced for the heavy rains predicted to last through the weekend.

Not so calm was Richard Shapiro, chairman of the California Horse Racing Board.

“I’m very upset that Cushion Track made a mistake,” he said of the manufacturer of Santa Anita’s synthetic surface. “The problems they’re having with that track should not be viewed as an indictment against all synthetic tracks.

“A vendor made a mistake, but now you have people saying, ‘See, these tracks don’t work, these tracks are bad.’ What it is, a vendor screwed up.”

An ongoing drainage problem with the new $11-million track has put racing at Santa Anita this weekend -- and possibly today -- in jeopardy if the storm is as intense as expected. Workers early Thursday were still making adjustments to the track.

Shapiro’s comments came one day after an executive with Cushion Track admitted that his company made mistakes in the materials that were used, resulting in a drainage problem that has not been solved despite a $1-million renovation last month.

The problem has made the CHRB in general and Shapiro in particular targets for criticism within the horse racing industry because it was the board’s mandate in early 2006 that required California’s major tracks to install synthetic surfaces by the end of 2007 to improve safety.

Critics of the mandate say there wasn’t enough time to fully test the surfaces.

Shapiro rejects that claim, saying, “This is an industry that too long has been opposed to change. Sometimes it takes a kick in the . . . to get changes.

“You see the equine fatalities and the small fields and you sit back and say, ‘Something is wrong.’ You can be nice and ask tracks to make a change, but they’re not going to spend $8 to $10 million [on a new track] just because you ask them to.”

Shapiro concedes there are “challenges” with the synthetic surfaces. California has four of the nine in North America. Besides Santa Anita, they are at Hollywood Park, Del Mar and Golden Gate Fields.

“Sure, you can always have a better mousetrap,” he said. But, he added, the four California tracks now have safer surfaces.

At the summer meet at Del Mar last year, two horses died while racing on the new Polytrack synthetic surface, and four during morning workouts. That was an improvement over 2006, when eight horses died while racing and six during workouts.

However, at Hollywood Park, which has held three meets on its new Cushion Track synthetic surface, fatalities aren’t noticeably down if you count those incurred during racing and morning workouts. But Shapiro says that’s because more horses are training and racing there now.

“Are these tracks perfect?” he asked. “Absolutely not. But it is incorrect to think that a synthetic surface is going to mean no more injuries and no more fatalities. You’re always going to have those. The track is just one component.”

Among the critics of the new surfaces is trainer John Shirreffs, who believes they are tougher on the horses than dirt tracks and, as a result, bad for racing. He points to slower times, particularly in the later stages of races at Del Mar, as evidence.

“Horses shouldn’t have to struggle,” he said.

Despite the drainage problem at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert sees some positives.

“They needed to put in a new track, and this track is a lot better than the dirt track they had,” he said. “It’s level; the old one was uneven. But the most important thing, my horses are coming off this track sound.”

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larry.stewart@latimes.com