“In my 18 years working in various roles with track maintenance, I've been able to gain valuable knowledge at tracks like Del Mar, Turf Paradise, Zia Park, Sunland Park, Gulfstream Park West and Palm Meadows which will serve me well as Track Superintendent for Prairie Meadows,” Noffsinger said.

Prairie Meadows Vice President for Racing Derron Heldt added, “Ryan brings so much to the table with his experience, dedication and love of the industry as a third-generation horseman and having worked in various roles in track maintenance, I feel confident in his abilities to provide a solid and consistent racing surface for the horses, jockeys and racing industry participants that come to race in Iowa.”

Prairie Meadows' live racing season begins with 20 days of Thoroughbred-only racing from May 12-June 17 and is followed by a mixed Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse schedule of 60 race days from June 18-Sept. 30.

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The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) presented the Racetrack Maintenance Innovation Awards to its first class of award winners Monday evening at the Racecourse Managers' Conference and Workshop in Las Vegas. The award was created to celebrate the work of racetrack professionals who have day-to-day responsibilities for the maintenance, protection, and safety of horses and riders at tracks across the US. The 2022 winners distinguished themselves as some of the most innovative racetrack professionals in Thoroughbred racing today.

“It's so important to highlight the work of racetrack managers and operators because their work is critical to the success of Thoroughbred racing,” said NTRA President and CEO Tom Rooney. “I congratulate this first class of winners and thank each of them for their dedication to the safety and well-being of horses and riders.”

The 2022 winners are:

Leif Dickenson – Turf and Landscape Superintendent at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club – Nominated for his introduction of fibers in turf profiles at Santa Anita Park to improve the sheer strength of sand without the use of alternative fine materials that would impede drainage.

Joe King – posthumously awarded, former New York Racing Association (NYRA) Track Superintendent – Nominated for being the first person in racing to systematically include testing of the racing surfaces on a regular basis and for being a critical asset in designing racetrack surfaces.

Dennis Moore – Superintendent at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, Santa Anita Racetrack, and Los Alamitos Thoroughbred Racing – Nominated for his innovative work that led to maintenance and operational innovations for the synthetic racetrack surfaces at Remington Park and Hollywood Park, and for his work to consistently evaluate new technologies including fiber and new maintenance equipment for dirt and synthetic surfaces.

Nominations for the 2023 Racetrack Maintenance Innovation Awards will be open beginning Oct. 1, 2022. For more information, visit NTRA.com.

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“I am blessed and excited for this new opportunity in Iowa working at Prairie Meadows,” Blackburn said. “Working at racetracks has always been a love of mine, which started in Texas growing up around my dad's Quarter Horses to my experiences either at racetracks or horse farms. I've seen it all and done it all.”

Blackburn replaces Prairie Meadows' Racing Hall of Famer Lamont Marks, who retired in 2021 after years of in various roles, including track superintendent.

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“We are thrilled to be heading to Florida in 2022,” said Roy Smith, founder of the event and track superintendent at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino. “Gulfstream Park is a world-class facility with terrific racing surfaces.”

Track Superintendent Field Day started as a small meeting at Philadelphia Park (now Parx Racing) in 2002 and since then has grown to become one of the racing industry's largest and most important events focusing on track safety.

New regulations under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) are set to begin later this year, so the Field Day agenda will include a panel on ensuring that superintendents are ready for the hefty reporting requirements. This will also fulfill four hours of continuing education.

Track Superintendents Field Day is not-for-profit 501(c)(3) entity, and registration is free for superintendents and their staff, supported solely by the sponsors of this event, including title sponsor Equine Equipment.

The only expenses for track superintendents and staff are transportation and a discounted hotel rate at the Hampton Inn Hallandale Beach as the host hotel.

“My team and I look forward to welcoming everyone to Gulfstream Park,” said Tony Martinez Jr., track superintendent at the South Florida track.

“Track Superintendent Field Day always provides extensive educational information and networking, so we are proud to support this for the betterment of the industry,” said Steve Andersen of Equine Equipment. “The panels and speakers we bring together are instrumental in cultivating the superintendents of tomorrow and in building the skillsets of current supers. We urge tracks to send their key people to demonstrate a willingness to invest in their future and get the annual training from the oldest track superintendent group in North America.”

To register, call 877-905-0004 or email tracksupers@gmail.com.

More information regarding registration and the agenda will be forthcoming at www.tracksupers.com.

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The most recent death occurred in Laurel's eighth race Nov. 28, and training has been curtailed in the three days since then. A portion of the surface has been dug up in mid-stretch to allow an influx of track maintenance consultants to try and discover if there is an underlying problem that needs to be addressed.

Laurel's next scheduled racing date is Friday, Dec. 3, but it could be in jeopardy, according to Alan Foreman, an attorney who represents the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

“We've looked at every potential factor, and what we're focusing in on right now is the racing surface at Laurel,” Foreman said. “I think everybody understands that's what we're looking at, because with this red-flag cluster of fatalities, most of them were happening at about the same spot on the racetrack,” which he described as being in the middle of the homestretch.

“If there is a short-term remedy, then we'll try to implement a short-term remedy. If it's a longer-term issue, we'll have to address all of those factors. The expectation is that we're going to be able to start training on the surface this weekend, and we can resume racing next week,” Foreman said.

But, Foreman was quick to add, “We should not allow these horses to race on this surface until we feel certain that it's a safe racetrack.”

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Mike Rogers, the president of the racing division for The Stronach Group (TSG), which owns Laurel, told TDN via phone that he could not immediately comment on when racing would resume. He said a press release detailing that decision was in the process of being drafted by TSG executives.

No timed workouts have been allowed at Laurel since Sunday, although horses have been permitted to gallop around the cordoned-off section of the homestretch, Rogers said.

Rogers said that on Nov. 23, a “minor maintenance” issue was identified in the homestretch. “It was a minor settlement in the base that we dealt with. Our crew found it. We're dealing with it. So that was the reason that the 'dogs' were up. We pulled up the cushion, and did some maintenance to that little bit of settlement that took place….before the sixteenth pole,” he said.

“We're planning timed workouts for Saturday, Dec. 4,” Rogers said.

The cluster of fatalities is the latest safety blow at Maryland's premier racing and training venue. Laurel had ceased racing back on Apr. 11 to begin an emergency, multi-million-dollar overhaul of the main track, which got rebuilt from the base up over the course of four months in an effort to solve substantial deterioration brought on by years of near-daily usage and piecemeal repairs to fix myriad problems.

“Whenever you put a new surface down, that can create problems of its own, so you have to be careful when you come back,” Foreman said. He added that when the new main track at Laurel opened Sept. 9, “We started out fine with it.”

The Maryland Racing Commission (MRC) confirmed the names and dates of the horses who have perished by providing an equine fatalities report to TDN on Wednesday. Counting only deaths from fractures on the main track since the new surface was installed, Laurel's first catastrophic injury occurred Oct. 3, when a $10,000 maiden-claiming filly named Kyosha lost her action near the three-quarters pole in a seven-furlong sprint. The Equibase chart stated she was vanned off.

There were then no main-track fatalities until Nov. 6, when the 3-year-old filly Bella Thyme died either during or after a workout.

On Nov. 13, Bust'em Kurt, a 2-year-old colt, was racing in the first flight of a pack of horses in a MSW six-furlong sprint when he unseated his rider at the top of the stretch after suffering a fatal injury.

On Nov. 19, the fatally injured 3-year-old gelding Gale Winds was vanned off after being pulled up in the early stages of a six-furlong NW2L $10,000 claiming sprint.

On Nov. 25, the 5-year-old gelding Manicomio fell while on lead at the three-sixteenths pole. The Equibase chart stated he was euthanized on the track.

The MRC fatalities report lists a horse named Golden Sky as having died during or after a Nov. 27 workout (Equibase does not list any currently active horses of racing age under that name).

Two horses trained by prominent Maryland conditioner Dale Capuano also recently perished: One was the 2-year-old gelding American Playboy, who, according to Equibase, was “injured past the eighth pole and had to be vanned off” this past Sunday in a six-furlong allowance/optional claimer.

The other was the promising Moquist, a 3-year-old filly with a 4-for-4 record who was a half-sister to recent GI Breeders' Cup Sprint victor Aloha West (Hard Spun). According to the MRC, she died Nov. 21 during or after a workout.

Michael Hopkins, the MRC's executive director, told TDN that from his perspective, all stakeholders appear to be working together in an effort to solve whatever is causing the fatalities.

“The commission's concerned about it, number one,” Hopkins said. “Number two, TSG has brought their people in from California. [Noted track superintendent] Dennis Moore is here. The horsemen have hired John Passero, who used to be the track superintendent [in Maryland] as an independent party to give his opinion of what he sees one way or the other.

“Hopefully, they'll come to a conclusion of what is best to address any issues that the track may have,” Hopkins continued. “My understanding is that they're being collaborative [and] understanding each other's positions and points of view. [But] where that sits right now I just don't know. John has been here since Monday. Dennis came in Tuesday night, I think.”

One aspect that has been a factor in the stability and safety of previous versions of the Laurel main track could be coming into play right now: the most recent seven fatalities have all occurred since the onset of colder weather, which, when coupled with moisture, can cause unevenness to develop.

During a Nov. 10 teleconference, Laurel track superintendent Chris Bosley said that the clay content in the new dirt track “is higher than was anticipated, so we'll be adding straight silica sand, which is 100% pure and has smaller grains. It will help break up the material a little bit, help loosen up the track, and help dry it out quicker. Moisture stays underneath and the material is bonding, so we'll introduce silica sand to break it up and probably slow down the track a bit. Silica sand is aggressive–and expensive–so we're going to do the process really slow.”

Although both Hopkins and Foreman told TDN the onset of colder weather could be a contributing cause to the racetrack's problems, they both underscored that equine fatalities can be deeply multi-factorial in nature, which makes it difficult to pin down any one issue that needs to be corrected.

“They're looking at everything. They're looking at a very broad spectrum here to make sure everything is right. Just from what we see, something's not right. It doesn't feel right,” Hopkins said. “Are there problems with the horses? I don't know. We have not had the opportunity to gather the facts as far as medical histories, vet records, and those types of things off of those horses to sit down and evaluate them one by one.”

Added Foreman: “It's not the horsemen. It's not medication. It's not running bad horses. You look at everything, but you look for the common denominator. It appears to be the racing surface, and that's what we're focusing in on.”

If the fix ends up being more complicated than expected, the prospect of having to transfer racing over to Pimlico Race Course (TSG's other Maryland track some 30 miles north in Baltimore) would be a much more daunting endeavor during the winter than it was last spring, when Pimlico was getting ready for its GI Preakness S. meet but ended up hosting Maryland racing through August. At that time, all horses were moved out of Laurel and split between stabling areas at Pimlico and the Timonium fairgrounds. But at this point in the year, neither of those venues is winter-ready to host massive numbers of horses.

“The problem with Pimlico is there's no place for the horses to train, unless we allow training at Laurel,” Foreman said. “That's the problem with the consolidation of racing here–we don't have a backup if the dirt surface at Laurel is out of commission.”

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Beaubien was widely known and respected among his peers, and he was an active participant at the annual Track Superintendent Field Day helping to share his knowledge with others. Beubein always attended the track supers event and facilitated interesting topics for conversation.

“Bob was a very nice guy and very knowledgeable,” said Jake Leitzel, director of track maintenance at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course. “He was the type of guy that would do anything for you. I learned from him at Penn National when he was my boss. We worked great together.”

Leitzel recalled that Beabien became track superintendent at Penn National around 1990 after previously working in Michigan as a blacksmith and starter. Beabien left Penn National in 2000 and worked at several tracks after that before retiring.

“It's a shame that any young guy coming up in this business won't have the chance to work with Bob because he was so knowledgeable,” added Leitzel. “A lot of track supers would talk to him. Even when I had the job here as track super, I still called him with questions or he would call me with questions. He's definitely going to be missed.”

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Beaubien was widely known and respected among his peers, and he was an active participant at the annual Track Superintendent Field Day helping to share his knowledge with others.

“Bob was a very nice guy and very knowledgeable,” said Jake Leitzel, director of track maintenance at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course. “He was the type of guy that would do anything for you. I learned from him at Penn National when he was my boss. We worked great together.”

Leitzel recalled that Beabien became track superintendent at Penn National around 1990 after previously working in Michigan as a blacksmith and starter. Beabien left Penn National in 2000 and worked at several tracks after that before retiring.

“It's a shame that any young guy coming up in this business won't have the chance to work with Bob because he was so knowledgeable,” added Leitzel. “A lot of track supers would talk to him. Even when I had the job here as track super, I still called him with questions or he would call me with questions. He's definitely going to be missed.”

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“We are thrilled to be heading to Florida in 2022,” said Roy Smith, founder of the event and track superintendent at Indiana Grand Racing and Casino. “Gulfstream Park is a world-class facility with terrific racing surfaces, so it will serve as a great host for track superintendents from around North America and beyond.”

“The team at Gulfstream Park and 1/ST RACING is truly looking forward to hosting the Superintendent Field Day for the first time. Being committed to the safety of all our racing participants, we appreciate working together to continue elevating standards of safe racing operations through events exactly like this one. We hope to host more of these events at our 1/ST PROPERTIES in the future,” said Aidan Butler, Chief Operating Officer, 1/ST RACING.

Thanks to the support of sponsors, including title sponsor Equine Equipment, the event again will offer free registration to all track superintendents and staff, with the only expenses being transportation and a discounted hotel rate.

“I always look forward to attending this meeting and getting the chance to share ideas and information with other track supers, so I'm excited to welcome everyone to Gulfstream Park next year,” said Tony Martinez Jr., track superintendent at the South Florida track.

“Track Superintendent Field Day always provides extensive educational information and networking, so we are proud to support this for the betterment of the industry,” said Steve Andersen of Equine Equipment. “The panels and speakers we bring together are instrumental in cultivating the superintendents of tomorrow and in building the skillsets of current supers. We urge tracks to send their key people to demonstrate willingness to invest in their future.”

In addition to the educational aspect, Track Superintendent Field Day has a charity aspect, and the 2021 meeting at Indiana Grand provided $500 donations to both the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and New Vocations.

“The PDJF and New Vocations are both tremendously important to our industry, so we are happy to do our part in helping to support them with these donations,” said Smith. “We had a great event this year and being able to give back to the industry makes it even better.”

More information regarding registration and the agenda will be forthcoming at tracksupers.com.

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Moderated by Nancy Holthus, on-air paddock analyst at Indiana Grand, numerous industry experts will be scattered throughout the two-day event regarding surface and soil sciences, the latest in equipment used to maintain track surfaces, agronomic practices, and other tactical safety measures to assist track superintendents with their day to day routines.

“This year, we have over 70 tracks represented at the event,” said Roy Smith. “Due to continued travel restrictions, we won't have anyone internationally like we generally do, but we will still have a good representation from tracks across North America. It's a great time for us all to get together and share ideas and learn about the latest technology and equipment out there.”

Smith, who has been Indiana Grand's track superintendent since 2015 and now resides in Morristown, Ind., is the founder of the Track Superintendent's Field Day conference. This is the second time the event, which travels to different racetracks each season, has been hosted by Indiana Grand. The event made a stop in Indiana in 2016.

Several equipment displays will be trackside during live racing Monday, June 14 and Tuesday, June 15. The displays are open to the public.

The 19th season of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing is now in progress and continues through Monday, Nov. 8. Live racing is conducted at 2:25 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, with first post on Thursday set at 3:25 p.m. A special Indiana Champions Day highlighting the state's top Thoroughbred and Quarter Horses will be held Saturday, Oct. 30, beginning at noon. More information about the 2021 racing season is available at www.caesars.com/indiana-grand.

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Moderated by Nancy Holthus, on-air paddock analyst at Indiana Grand, numerous industry experts will be scattered throughout the two-day event regarding surface and soil sciences, the latest in equipment used to maintain track surfaces, agronomic practices, and other tactical safety measures to assist track superintendents with their day-to-day routines.

“This year, we have over 70 tracks represented at the event,” said the event's founder Roy Smith, Indiana Grand's track superintendent since 2015. “Due to continued travel restrictions, we won't have anyone internationally like we generally do, but we will still have a good representation from tracks across North America.”

Indiana Grand also hosted the 2016 renewal of the event.

Open to the public, several equipment displays will be trackside during live racing June 14-15.

For more information, visit www.caesars.com/indiana-grand.

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