Horse Racing's Revolutionary Running Surfaces

▪ 2008

      The trend toward replacing traditional dirt tracks with synthetic surfaces at Thoroughbred race tracks in the United States grew significantly in 2007, lending momentum to one of the most revolutionary concepts in the long history of the sport of horse racing. Although installation costs could run upwards of $10 million, the synthetic surfaces—which provided a more consistent, better cushioned, and weather-resistant running surface—were seen as a way for tracks to reduce the number of career-ending and catastrophic injuries to Thoroughbred horses.

      A synthetic racing surface was first developed in England by Martin Collins, who patented what he called Polytrack, a blend of polypropylene fibres, recycled rubber, and silica sand covered in a wax coating. It was installed experimentally on a training track in 1987 and used competitively for the first time in 2001. Track owners in the U.S. began to take an interest in Polytrack as an all-weather alternative to dirt tracks. Its first application in the U.S. was in 2004 at the five-eighths mile training track at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

      Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., in 2005 became the first American track to conduct its races on a synthetic surface; it was followed in 2006 by Keeneland and Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif. In 2007 three more California racetracks—Santa Anita, Del Mar, and Golden Gate—unveiled synthetic surfaces in compliance with a 2006 mandate by California's Horse Racing Board that all tracks in the state adopt the technology by 2008. Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pa., also made the conversion during the year.

      In addition to Polytrack, patented synthetic racing surfaces were being marketed by Cushion Track, Tapeta Footings, and Pro-Ride Racing. The sales environment for the technology was becoming extremely competitive as more tracks across the country explored their options. With all synthetic tracks, drainage materials of varying density served as a base, along with a system of underground piping. The actual running surface was designed to be uniform at roughly 15 cm (about 6 in) in depth. And besides having superior drainage and reducing the maintenance costs of synthetic surfaces, the surface allowed for footing that proved to be safer, softer, and more uniform than the unstable nature of dirt tracks, at least during the initial stages of observation under competitive conditions. A reduction in the number of injuries to Thoroughbreds was also documented. During the first year of use, Arlington Park documented a decrease from 22 injuries to 13, while at Del Mar injuries fell to 6 from 14. Turfway also showed a dramatic drop from 24 injuries on the dirt track in 2004–05 to only 3 on the synthetic track in 2005–06, but the track's subsequent increase to 14 injuries in 2006–07 raised questions about how these new surfaces would age.

      In some respects the technology changed the face of the sport by muffling the sounds of the horses' hooves during races and by eliminating the slowdown of races run over muddy and even sloppy tracks as a result of heavy rain. Variants and track bias (common tools used by bettors who handicap races on dirt) also were nonexistent on synthetic tracks. Slower running times over comparable distances on dirt tracks were recorded. Since the surfaces were precipitation resistant, observations were still being made as to what effect extreme heat and subfreezing temperatures would have on the synthetic material mix.

John G. Brokopp

* * *