CDTVG and Magna Bailout

[Ill-bred]

Lost Cause-

I see your point. If synthetic tracks are the future, and dirt tracks will be phased out completely one day, we may as well make all of them synthetic now. It would at least get us out of the current situation where you have to make wild guesses between surface and form as these horses move from one track to another.

But here\'s the problem -- we don\'t know if synthetics are the future, yet we have installed them at many major tracks!??

How will the synthetics hold up after 5 or 10 years of racing? Are they really better for the horses? Are they cost effective? Do the best horses win? What will they do to the future of the breed? Will synthetic tracks make horse racing a better or worse sport? How will they affect the sport\'s popularity? Mutuel handle?

Shouldn\'t we get some answers before we convert all our tracks to attic insulation?

[number5858]

I don\'t even think it is as simple as synthetic. There are so many different types of synthetic. I don\'t know yet how much of a difference there is between them. Maybe there isn\'t much difference, maybe there is. I do know that I don\'t know yet how or if I need to make an adjustment for a horse coming to/from ProRide vs some other synthetic, so I am not going to commit much on these surfaces. I will stick to the NYRA tracks for now.

[mlnolan00]

Something\'s up with that Hollywood track.  Shakis on Friday, two horses on Saturday, and according to TVG another horse broke down after the wire in the nightcap on Sunday.  

Rencently, our stable has had two horses with irreversible suspensory damage to their front fetlocks on that same Hollywood surface.  They can never race again...one horse the damage is so bad he probably can\'t even be ridden again.

That\'s not my idea of safety.  In the same amount of time, how many breakdowns have we had at Churchill?  I\'m at the races all the time and have not yet seen one this fall meet.

[covelj70]

The pretty lady to which you refer is Christina Olivares and I don\'t want to take this board in the wrong direction but let\'s just say my wife and I have an understanding about that particular situation and I will leave it at that....lol

[covelj70]

So sorry about the horses that were injured. Game is so brutally difficult that way.  

Almost to a person, every vet/trainer I have spoken with believes that there is just as much injury risk on the poly as there is on a good dirt track like the ones in NY.

Such ashame.

[imallin]

Another negative factor in handicapping synth is pace. You can handicap a race with 3 one dimensional speeds and bet a closer and 2 of the speeds will just surrender and you\'ll lose to the \'loose\' frontrunner. I can\'t seem to \'predict\' the jockey strategy as much on synthetic, which means i don\'t know whether to bet big on speed, stalkers or deep closers.

[miff]

More than one vet in NY thinks the elimination of any kind of front caulks/bends will help with the breakdown issue. I think that breakdowns are kinda random regardless of surface. Too many ouchy ones are sent to the track and that too contributes.


Mike