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‘Why Go Through This Every Year?’: Commission Chair Pushes Synthetic Surface For Charles Town

With 11 fatalities thus far in 2021 and closures this week to evaluate the track surface, Charles Town Races came under fire at this week's meeting of the West Virginia Racing Commission. According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, WVRC Chairman Ken Lowe Jr. strongly recommended that Charles Town consider replacing it's six-furlong dirt oval with a synthetic surface.

“Let's truly think about working together to figure out a way that Charles Town can go to synthetic,” Lowe said. “I don't see an answer to this problem that we have every year here. I know [the track superintendent] is doing a great job. Management's trying…. But why go through this every year? Let's figure out a way to do it so there can possibly be a synthetic surface at Charles Town that solves most of the problems with a proper drainage system, et cetera. I think that's the solution.”

Charles Town's vice president of racing operations, Erich Zimney, responded: “It's certainly something that will have to be discussed internally here, and I would caution against anything rash as far as mandating anything.”

Gulfstream To Install Tapeta Surface Between Turf, Dirt Courses

Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. will install a Tapeta synthetic racing surface over the outer 60 feet of its turf course, the Daily Racing Form reported on Friday. The installation will give Gulfstream three surfaces over which to race.

“We had over 100 races taken off the turf last year, and that becomes a major blow to our handle due to the inevitable reduction of field sizes,” Gulfstream's Bill Badgett told DRF. “With the option to switch those races to the Tapeta track rather than a wet main track, we'll be able to keep the fields intact, which keeps the handle intact, which in turn helps keep the purses intact.”

The Tapeta will also be able to be used for morning training, as well as an option for a surface change if the main track becomes too sloppy.

No timeframe has yet been established for the installation.

PETA Files Resolution with Churchill Downs

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which has been buying stock in racetrack companies this year and earlier had purchased stock in Churchill Downs, submitted a resolution calling on Churchill Downs, Inc., to report to shareholders on the feasibility of replacing the Churchill main track with a synthetic surface.

The Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database, which compiles statistics regarding racing fatalities, indicates fewer horses sustain fatal catastrophic injuries on synthetic surfaces than on dirt tracks. The incidence of fatality per 1,000 starts for dirt in 2019 was 1.6 and per 1,000 starts for the same period on synthetic was .93.

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