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Southwell Racecourse’s fibresand surface will be replaced by Tapeta this spring and the project will be completed by the summer of 2021, the Arena Racing Company announced on Monday. A planning application was submitted for the new surface because the fibresand has come to the end of its operational life. Fibresand was first laid down in 1989, the start of all-weather racing at the Nottinghamshire venue. Tapeta, developed by Michael Dickinson and Joan Wakefield of Tapeta Footings, has already been laid down at Wolverhampton and Newcastle-also ARC courses-since 2014 and 2016, respectively. It is also in use in North America at Presque Isle Downs, Golden Gate Fields and Turfway Park Stateside, as well as Woodbine in Canada. This project follows the construction of floodlights in 2019 and the development of a flood alleviation scheme to protect the racecourse.

“Racing at both Wolverhampton and Newcastle has benefitted hugely from the installation of Tapeta, as we have worked closely with Michael Dickinson, Joan Wakefield and their team on the maintenance and upkeep of both surfaces,” said ARC Chief Executive Martin Cruddace. “Tapeta represents the next generation of artificial all-weather racing surface, in terms of its appeal to both trainers and jockeys, and it offers a number of benefits regarding its safety record, relative lack of kickback and fairness for horses. In addition, it has the ability to handle very low temperatures and significant rainfall.

“The installation of Tapeta will give us an opportunity to look at the flat programme at Southwell and possibly introduce some Fast Track Qualifier races for the All-Weather Championships, for example. This work represents another significant step forward for racing at Southwell, which we intend to be one of the finest all-weather tracks in the world.”

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Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., ushered in a new era on Tuesday with the opening night of its first race meet since the installation of the Tapeta Footings synthetic track, but a second-race incident showed that even the safest of surfaces cannot prevent all injuries or fatalities.

In that race, the 3-year-old gelding Dream High was pulled up by jockey Deshawn Parker midway down the backstretch of the 6 1/2-furlong sprint while trailing the field. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission confirmed Wednesday morning that Dream High was euthanized because of the injuries he sustained.

“It was an open fracture and very serious,” said equine medical director Dr. Bruce Howard. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission conducts necropsy reports on all racing fatalities.

Dream High was making his fourth start since debuting at Indiana Grand Sept. 24 for trainer Randy Klopp, who co-owned the Honor Code gelding with Spiess Stable LLC. He was carrying a $30,000 tag in the maiden claiming event. The gelding was coming off a second-place finish at Indiana Grand on Nov. 5 in a $25,000 maiden claiming event.

A $370,000 weanling purchase by Mayberry Farms at the 2017 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, Dream High was produced from the Unbridled's Song mare, Ecology, who was a non-winner in two starts as a 3-year-old. Dream High recorded six workouts for trainer Peter Eurton at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., from Jan. 18-March 28, then surfaced at the Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, Ky., where he was credited with two workouts in late June and early July. He then was entered to sell at the July 13 Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale but was bought back by his consignor for $10,000. He began working again in late July, recording five breezes at Indiana Grand prior to his Sept. 24 racing debut there. He has no recorded workouts since then, according to Equibase, the industry's official data base.

Churchill Downs Inc., which purchased Turfway Park in October 2019, invested $5.6 million to install Tapeta Footings – a mixture of silica sand, wax and fibers.– as a replacement for Polytrack, which has a similar composition. The latter was installed in 2005, when Turfway became the first North American track to race over synthetics since Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla., opened in 1988 with Equitrack, a sand and oil-based polymer surface. That track was removed after several years.

Tapeta is now in place at Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania (installed in 2007), Golden Gate Fields in Northern California (2007) and Woodbine in Ontario, Canada (2015). Tapeta Park in Tasmania, and British tracks Wolverhampton and Newcastle also have Tapeta surfaces, as do several major training centers.

The other remaining synthetic racetrack in North America is the Polytrack installed at Arlington Park in 2007. Keeneland, Del Mar and Santa Anita installed, and then removed, synthetic racing surfaces.

According to The Jockey Club's Equine Injury Database, which monitors and analyzes racing fatalities at North American tracks, the Tapeta surfaces at Presque Isle, Golden Gate and Woodbine have produced fewer fatalities per 1,000 starts, on average, than the aggregate of all tracks. Golden Gate, for example, had 0.64 deaths per thousand starts in 2019, compared to an overall North American fatality rate of 1.53. Woodbine had 1.32 per thousand for 2019. Presque Isle in 2018 (the most recent year available) had 0.34 deaths per thousand.

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