michael dickinson | Horse Racing Free Tips

Tapeta Farm for Sale

Tapeta Farm, owned and operated by trainer Michael Dickinson, has been listed for sale by Goffs Property, part of the Goffs Group. The training center is situated on 196 acres at the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay on the Elk River, mid-way between New York City and Washington D.C.

As a trainer, Dickinson is probably best known for winning the 1996 and 1998 Breeders' Cup Mile with Da Hoss. He also is responsible for developing the year-round Tapeta training surface.

Tapeta Farm offers 30 acres of paddocks, including turnout paddocks covering 20 acres, two movable round pens, organic grazing areas, and two sand pens. Also, the property provides six different season turf tracks, a 4,500 sq. foot main house and a Performance Centre, which includes equine equipment such as a cold saltwater spa, salt room, vibrating platform, and three examining stalls. The performance centre also houses the auxiliary energy system as well as a covered eight-horse Euro-Cizer, and the synthetic track surface research lab. Adjacent to the Performance Centre is the swimming pond with central dock. Other features of the farm–a 40-stall barn, offering a well-water treatment facility, six-air-changes-per-hour ventilator system, three hay steamers, organic fly-spray system and a hay storage area.

For more information, click here.

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Speakers Announced for Track Supers Field Day at Indiana

The lineup of speakers has been announced for the 20th annual Track Superintendents Field Day set for June 14-15 at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino. Among the speakers on the agenda are Joe Morris, senior vice president of racing for Caesars; Mike Ziegler, senior vice president and general manager of Churchill Downs, Dr. Michael DePew, an agronomist/soil scientist and industry-leading leading soil expert; trainer Michael Dickinson, president of Tapeta Footings Inc.; Dr. William Farmer, equine medical director for Churchill Downs Inc.; and Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National HBPA. The meeting brings together track superintendents and staff to discuss best practices related to track maintenance, safety and operational issues for racing and training facilities.

“We encourage not only track supers to attend, but also those from training centers as well as farms with training surfaces,” said Roy Smith, founder of the event and track superintendent at Indiana Grand.

Registration, free to track supers and staff, is now open for the event. For more information, go to www.tracksupers.com.

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Dickinson, Ziegler Among Speakers For 2021 Track Superintendents Field Day

A strong lineup of speakers has been announced for the 20th annual Track Superintendents Field Day set for June 14-15 at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino. The meeting brings together track superintendents and staff to discuss best practices related to track maintenance, safety and operational issues for racing and training facilities.

Among the speakers on the agenda are Joe Morris, senior vice president of racing for Caesars; Mike Ziegler, senior vice president and general manager of Churchill Downs, Dr. Michael DePew, an agronomist/soil scientist and industry-leading leading soil expert; trainer Michael Dickinson, president of Tapeta Footings Inc.; Dr. William Farmer, equine medical director for Churchill Downs Inc.; and Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National HBPA.

“There is nothing more important to horsemen than the safety of horses and jockeys, so I'm looking forward to interacting with the men and women who work tirelessly to make our racing surfaces as safe as possible,” said Hamelback.

Registration is now open for the event, and there are no registration fees for track supers and staff thanks to the support of sponsors.

“We are excited to have such a distinguished list of speakers this year and think this will be one of the best gatherings we've ever had,” said Roy Smith, founder of the event and track superintendent at Indiana Grand. “We encourage not only track supers to attend, but also those from training centers as well as farms with training surfaces.”

For more information, go to www.tracksupers.com.

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Turfway Operator Error Led to Pavement Chunks in New Tapeta Surface

Human error on the part of a heavy equipment operator at Turfway Park has been identified as the cause of several chunks of pavement being discovered in the recently installed Tapeta Footings synthetic track at Turfway Park that just opened for racing in December.

During the Jan. 26 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting, Tyler Picklesimer, Turfway's director of racing and racing secretary, was asked to update the board on how the new Tapeta surface was performing.

Picklesimer told the board members via teleconference that, “We've had no complaints. Everybody's been happy with the surface. It's performed well within the cold, actually better than the Polytrack did in severe cold weather. But no, so far so good–everybody's happy.”

Bill Landes III, the chairman of the KTDF advisory committee, then asked Marty Maline, the executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (KHBPA), if that assessment squared with the general consensus of his organization's membership.

Maline responded by saying, “The horsemen are just elated with the surface [and] its drainage. It's running really true to form.”

But then Maline added: “We had a little hiccup about a week or so ago. A horseman actually brought a couple of rocks [from the racing surface] in to the office, and it, of course, started a panic of sorts.

“But right away the [Turfway] track man explained that when they were actually getting the surface into the front-loader [when installing it], they actually had chopped off a couple of pieces of blacktop,” Maline said. “And so it was a very limited situation.”

Maline said that right after the discovery, KHBPA board member Bill Connelly walked the circumference of the one-mile oval to inspect it, adding, “at about 15 F degrees, [he's] a stronger man than I am.”

Maline said after that inspection, “there was about two or three of these pieces of blacktop, and they were taken care of. [Tapeta Footings executives Michael Dickinson and Joan Wakefield] came in and reviewed it, and explained it wasn't the bottom, because the bottom is all [a different type of uniform-sized] rocks. And so everything died down. There wasn't any real problem with it.”

Maline closed out the subject by reiterating his overall positive impression that the Tapeta track has “been a godsend, really. It's a great surface.”

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