With its new Tapeta racing surface, Gulfstream Park will be the first North American racetrack to race on turf, dirt and a synthetic surface when it commences its championship in December. Until then, there will be racing only on the Tapeta and the dirt track there. The turf course is under repair and won’t be ready until then. All the races on the Tapeta surface will be run at ‘about’ distances until further notice.
I think it is encouraging that The Stronach Group is moving forward with this new Tapeta initiative, especially since the ‘synthetic’ experience at Santa Anita and the rest of the mandated California tracks was not a good one (other than for Golden Gate Fields, which installed a Tapeta surface in 2007).
Over the last three years, according to the Equine Injury Database (EID), Santa Anita has reduced its annual breakdown per 1,000 starters to 2.13. But that is still high. The national average for 2020, according to the EID, was 1.41, and at Golden Gate Fields it was 1.02.
This article, which I wrote in February 2020, summarizes some of the critical issues that arose particularly at high-profile tracks such as Keeneland and Del Mar.
In December 2010, the Breeders’ Cup announced that no future Breeders’ Cup meet would be held on a synthetic dirt surface. In early 2014, Keeneland and Del Mar separately announced that they were abandoning their synthetic tracks and returning to a dirt surface. A few months later, the Breeders’ Cup announced that the 2015 championships would be held for the first time at Keeneland and in 2017 they would at Del Mar for the first time.
I strongly believe that the perception by many in the industry about the current and future importance of racing on synthetic surfaces is significantly less than the real opportunities that exist. Here are a few thoughts from my February, 2020 article:
- The home page of the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition’s website says this: “Putting safety first, every horse, every race every time … promotes a culture of safety.” The coalition represents the most powerful racetracks in the U.S. and should come to understand that putting the horse first has to involve a conversation about synthetic surfaces.
- I have learned during my research on synthetics that where we are today is more about the mistakes that have been made than about acknowledging those tracks where synthetic surfaces mean good business. Spend a few minutes and look at where tracks like Woodbine, Turf Parkway, Golden Gate and Presque Isle have used their synthetic surfaces to promote themselves to their customers, owners, trainers and jockeys.
Clearly, there is one major international company that has slowly developed and is truly the important force in synthetic surfaces - Tapeta Footings, which is owned and operated by the husband-and-wife team of Joan Wakefield and Michael Dickinson.
They service and maintain two tracks in England, Wolverhampton and Newcastle, and are under contract installing a new Tapeta surface there at Southwell. In the United States, they have operated racing surfaces at Presque Isle and Golden Gate Fields since 2007 and they continue to demonstrate that Tapeta Holdings can install, maintain and improve their surface. In recent years, they have replaced Polytrack at Woodbine and Turfway Park and they have just launched Gulfstream Park.
TRC published an article in February 2020 - Dispelling the myths about Synthetic tracks: a Q&A with Michael Dickenson and Joan Wakefield. This is as relevant and important now as the day we published it.
Below is a brief Q&A that I did this past weekend with Michael Dickinson regarding his experience in the Gulfstream project.
CH: What were the specific challenges installing a Tapeta surface on a racetrack that already had separate turf and dirt surfaces?
MD: Gulfstream were very mindful of the horsemen and did not want to shut down the racetrack and take away their livelihood. Obviously the best thing may have been to close the racetrack and make life simpler for everyone, but they did everything in their power to continue racing, and I think they must be commended for that.
[It meant] having to work restricted hours to allow for morning training and a 3-day race week. The show had to go on.
Over the last five years, your firm has successfully done new Tapeta installations at Newcastle in the UK, Woodbine in Canada and Turfway Park in the U.S. Has the company made substantial advances in Tapeta development as the result of the work at these three tracks?
Of course, we are always looking to improve our surface. Advances have been made in the types of wax for specific climates and also in the types of fibers used within the surface. Each fiber has its own specific job to do, and obviously a track which races in a very cold climate throughout the winter needs different properties to a track in summer in the heat.
Were there specific challenges that you faced at Gulfstream with the Tapeta installation: Weather, high humidity and temperatures, availability of proper dirt sand material, etc?
The main challenges faced at Gulfstream were the same that everyone in the world is facing at the moment – i.e. transport.
Do you have any thoughts or concerns that have arisen in this first weekend of racing on Tapeta?
Obviously the first day the times were slow, but the track does need more time to bed in and will keep improving for the next month.
Have any received any legitimate concerns/praise/suggestions from jockeys or trainers that have not raced on a Tapeta surface previously?
All the jockeys really liked it and felt it would only get better day by day as it bedded in. They all felt it was safe.
The entire team at Tapeta Footings stresses relationship building and constant work in continually upgrading the racing surface.
Ray Paulick showed that once again he is on top of important industry trends in the September 30 edition of the Paulick Report and The Friday Show, where Paulick and bloodstock editor Joe Nevills sit down with Mark Casse to talk about Gulfstream Park and synthetic surfaces in general and also to discuss a number of Casse’s best-performing horses and where they are headed this fall.
Casse was inducted to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame earlier this year at the ceremony in Saratoga Springs. Perhaps more relevant to synthetic surfaces, Casse was elected to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2016. In addition, in 2020, he won his 13th annual Sovereign Award for the annual leading trainer for Thoroughbred racing in Canada.
Casse’s Canadian base is at Woodbine Racetrack, which has had a synthetic surface since 2006. Here is a question that Ray asks him on the video:
“What about anecdotal contention by some horsemen suggesting that, while synthetics may result in fewer fractures or fatal injuries, more soft tissue problems develop on a synthetic track?”
“That is the biggest bunch of hogwash that I have ever heard,” says Casse. “That’s the most ridiculous statement. I can tell you we have far more soft tissue injuries on dirt than we ever do on synthetics. That is somebody saying things and they don’t know what they are talking about.”
You are in for a treat. Enjoy the video!
Gray areas
Finally, for over 25 years, while directly involved in the Thoroughbred racing industry, I have never had the ability to fully wrap my mind around the breeding side of the business. Somehow, in the time that Chris McGrath has been writing for TDN, I have come to appreciate the breeding and sales part of the business and how things come together on both sides of the Pond. I especially enjoyed McGrath’s TDN article last Friday entitled This Side Up: Grounds for Optimism.
Here are a few of his comments that I found important.
- “Simultaneously, moreover, across the nation at Gulfstream, The Stronach Group is raising the curtain on another fall meet, and on an intervention in the racing surface that may ultimately prove no less critical to the survival of our sport.”
- “As the first North American racetrack to offer all three surfaces, side by side, Gulfstream demonstrates that there can literally be a third way. At a time when so many of us just retreat into our echo chambers, deploring those with whom we disagree, it’s good to be reminded that tolerance, co-existence and pluralism aren’t just high-sounding aspirations but a useful practical framework that enables us all to thrive.”
- “In the longer term, however, it will also give everyone a chance to calibrate their responses to the challenge of training Thoroughbreds in the 21st Century; to explore those gray areas, between our adamant prejudices, with the best interests of the horse in mind; while still granting the industry time to make the serving of those interests commercially sustainable.”
Thank you, Chris McGrath.
As noted in many instances above, the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry could not align itself to take huge advantages of synthetic racetracks in the areas of safety, racing, aftercare, research, breeding and sales. Let’s not let myopia and personal short-sighted interests impede our thinking and efforts to improve and grow our relationships and our business.