Ahead of this week's Track Superintendent Field Day at Horseshoe Indianapolis, we asked our Patreon subscribers what they want to know about track maintenance. We brought your questions to Michael DePew, soil science consultant who led off the presentations Monday with an overview of how particle size and chemical properties impact track maintenance.
Here's what we learned:
–Do track superintendents monitor race days for track bias and adjust maintenance to make the surface play “fair”?
Probably not in the way you're thinking of. DePew said track maintenance crews will keep an eye on lane bias. For example, in Quarter Horse races, wherein the field mostly remains spread across the width of the racetrack, they will be watching to see if there's a lane that's deeper or dryer than the others.
When it comes to monitoring for early speed bias versus closers, DePew said that's beyond his purview.
–What does harrowing accomplish on a dirt track?
It's creating a cushion — the fluffy part that sits on the top of a track surface. When a horse's hoof hits the cushion, it compacts under the weight of the horse and softens the impact of the horse's leg to the ground. This cushion needs to be compactable in order to take that impact, but it also needs to be supportive enough when compacted to give the horse something to push off from when they go to take the next step.
The amount of moisture in a surface can impact this, too. DePew said that an ideally-composed dirt surface can handle a wide range of moisture amounts. Dirt surfaces that are less ideal in their mixing will have a more narrow range of moisture (from water trucks or from rainfall) that they can tolerate before they develop problems with cushion or slide.
-Which do track superintendents prefer for a dirt surface – irrigation or natural rainfall?
Perhaps surprisingly, DePew said he'd rather rely on his water trucks because he can control the amount, timing and volume of the water going onto the surface. The water quality of rainfall is definitely better for the track than what's coming from a lake or from ground water, but Mother Nature doesn't apply it evenly. For one thing, DePew said the larger tracks he's been to may be subject to cloudbursts where one part of the track gets rain and another doesn't.
For another, rainfall rates can be highly variable. Multiple, light rain events in a day soak in better than rainfall that's punctuated by heavier and lighter periods, as this changes the way the moisture moves through or over the top.
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–What about turf surfaces?
DePew said turf irrigation systems aren't always perfectly even; maintenance crews have to be aware of where there may be dry spots where irrigation doesn't reach. In this situation, areas that remain dry most of the time react differently to water when they do finally get it. They tend to have heavy rain run off the top quickly, rather than soaking through, compared to regularly-irrigated areas.
Turf tracks, predictably, often need more water than dirt tracks because of the demand of the root systems underneath. DePew recalled a day earlier this summer when the dirt track at Horseshoe Indianapolis got enough sudden rain that the top portion of it looked muddy, although the base underneath was stable. The turf track actually needed more moisture after that brief rainy period though so DePew was faced with the prospect of running the irrigation system after the day's races even though it had been stormy earlier.
–What's the difference between “wet fast” and “sloppy” dirt tracks?
A lot of it is in the eye of the beholder. DePew leaves that designation to the racetrack for official purposes, but said that a very firm pad just under the harrow depth will make the track faster even when the cushion is wet. In fact, some tracks play faster when wet than dry because the water mixes with the cushion and makes it “splat” when the hoof hits, leaving the hoof to reach the pad more easily. Arguably, he said, that harder, firmer surface could be higher impact to the horse.
The post Your Questions About Racetrack Surfaces, Answered appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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