“Horses were not bred to run on the dirt,” said trainer Mark Casse. “They were bred to run on the grass, and Tapeta is as close to grass as you can get.”
Casse – inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame this year after a 2016 induction in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame – is this week's special guest on the Friday Show, joining Ray Paulick and bloodstock editor Joe Nevills to share his extensive knowledge and strong opinions about track surfaces. This week, Gulfstream Park in South Florida became the first facility in North America to have three unique racing surfaces: dirt, turf and the Tapeta Footings synthetic track.
Other tracks could follow suit, Casse said. “I think New York may be flirting with synthetic tracks somewhere down the line,” he said. “And I think it would be great and I think it would pay for itself in no time.”
What about the 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've ever heard,” said 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's somebody saying things and they don't know what they're talking about. Whenever I hear that I just laugh.”
Casse also brings viewers up to date on some of his stable stars, including two-time Grade 1 Fourstardave Stakes winner Got Stormy.
This week's Woodbine Star of the Week is Pink Lloyd, the Canadian sprint superstar who scored his 24th career stakes win last week in the Grade 3 Bold Venture Stakes.
Watch this week's Friday Show, presented by Woodbine, below:
The post The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Casse Bullish On Synthetics appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
