Santa Anita Suspends Racing Indefinitely
 

Santa Anita has cancelled racing indefinitely
http://live.drf.com/nuggets/47243-sa...g-indefinitely

21 racing and training fatalities in the last 2 months

Bad
 

Thanks Richie

Santa Anita has really been hexed

It is a bad situation, It has been a very wet winter. The track just was not
made for so much water.

Glad to see they finally put safety first

Anyone who was handicapping the breakdown events this year could have foretold this possibility :( which is a disaster for Santa Anita's reputation, let alone the far worse consequences for those poor horses, and not the least Battle of Midway RIP.

What will happen to this weekend's San Felipe and SA Handicap and the upcoming SA Derby? Some key preps for the KY Derby.

I wonder if an emergency move to Del Mar is possible with a few weeks scrambling (though I suspect that has been thought of for some while now).

I hope they find a long-term solution, but not a rushed one.

Ted

I feel the only true solution is to replace the entire surface from the bottom on up. Partner with Del Mar and get permission from the CHRB to move the rest of the winter season to DMR. Then replace the entire SA dirt surface in time for the May/June season. If these horse deaths continue at DMR or even after the SA dirt is replaced, then you can blame the horsemen for running unsound horses, the vets for clearing said horses, and Santa Anita for pushing this whole racket.

Two articles from The Guardian. The first is about Santa Anita and the other about the use of whips in British racing.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...g-horse-deaths

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...g-horse-racing

I made this discussion its own Thread.

Ted

Global warming can manifest itself anywhere, anytime.
 

The number of fatalities for horses at Santa Anita in the last three months has made the mainstream news. It was written up in The New York Times today. Rainfall, a depleted horse population, and aggressive training tactics are blamed. But mostly rainfall.

These are the fatality rates for all North American tracks in 2017:
On turf, 1.36 fatalities per 1,000 starts in 2017, compared to 1.09 in 2016;
On dirt, 1.74 fatalities per 1,000 starts in 2017, compared to 1.7 in 2016; and.
On synthetic, consistent at 1.1 per 1,000 starts year over year.

Did Santa Anita not have a synthetic surface at one time? Del Mar too? Synthetic, properly chosen and installed, has a consistently low rate of accidents. If they did, why did they change?

The track superintendant at SA said the surface there isn’t designed to handle the kind of rain they have been getting. That is likely the single biggest reason for what has been happening. My home track, Woodbine has been synthetic for many years, because of the extremes of weather we have through the seasons. A fast track all the time with relatively few breakdowns.

Extreme weather fluctuations are becoming more frequent everywhere. A consequence of our atmosphere and oceans warming. The worst wildfires one minute in California, floods the next. A return to a more resilient surface for SA and DMR, like an artificial one, would help them better deal with the unpredictable weather to come. I know this is a trivial consequence of our climate warming issue. Caused by spewing carbon for decades into the thin blue sphere, adaption will be key everywhere, until hopefully we eliminate or at least minimize this problem of our own making. For our sport, synthetic tracks would go a long way in doing just that.

Pook

I just saw the Guardian article that Mick posted. They did have a ProRide surface there at one time but had drainage problems. Also the local horseman didn’t like the Europeans coming over at Breeders Cup and beating them up with horses used to grass and artificial surfaces. They chose the wrong artificial surface IMO. Its only going to get worse.

I would venture to say the whole problem is a poorly designed racetrack. The base probably became uneven by the heavy rains, And who would not think that eventually there would be no heavy rains?


Yes Mother Nature has a way of balancing out weather patterns, so to think heavy rains wouldn't occur at some point is an unreasonable deduction thought process.


We've only been recording weather data for about 150 years which isn't a reliable base point considering how old the world is. A speck of sand in an 24 hour, hour glass. Even scientists can't agree on global warming and are like politicians, pick your poison.


While there are many reasons for fatalities on the course, the track itself appears to be the main culprit. Both G P and Tam have similar climates to California and SA could take some lessons from them on building a race track that can handle heavy rains. Tracks built in the east all have a solid foundation with good drainage, where they vary is the amount and type of topsoil above the foundation. I would not be surprised that SA skimped as a cost saving on the foundation and drainage. Pay now or pay later.

I doubt SA will reopen without a complete renovation.


Mitch44

Who will stop the rain ?
 

Excellent post Mitch, There is no reason that Tampa and Gulfstream
can build and maintain a safe winter season track, Yet Santa Anita can't

The rainfall for the winter/Spring SA,GP and TB seasons all have the same
or close ave rainfall but SA from Oct. til April Have much heavier rainfall

I guess Santa Anita thinks It never rains in California

SA - Arcadia Ca

Attachment 47799

GP Hallendale Fla.

Attachment 47800

Tamp Fla Tampa Bay

Attachment 47801