The situation at Santa Anita is obviously a disaster. But that is not an indictment on all synthetic surfaces. We are extremely happy with the track at Hollywood Park. There have been a few minor issues at Hollywood, but overall the track is great. It is a huge improvement over the old track and the old track was the best track in Southern California, so that should tell you something.
The vast majority of trainers out here are extremely happy with the track at Hollywood Park. From Richard Mandella to Ron Ellis to Marty Jones to Jeff Mullins, the list goes on and on. All of these guys love the track at Hollywood. I have talked with them about it.
There are a ton of horses out there that could not stay sound on the regular dirt here, but they are staying sound on the syntetic surfaces here.
Back in the 1980s, I think the dirt tracks were pretty good out here. The problem was that when it would rain, the tracks would become a mess. So they started adding sand and a buch of other things to the surface which made the track hold up much better in the rain but it made the tracks much worse over all.
The same thing happened at Turf Paradise. I was talking about this very subject this morning with a trainer that we use in Arizona and New Mexico when we ship horses there. He said that Turf Paradise was very good years ago, but it was a total mess when it rained. So they added a bunch of stuff to the track that made it hold up well when it rains, but overall it pretty much ruined the track and nowadays the track is not very good there.
Anyway, I don't know what the answer is. I think there is definitely a place for synthetic surfaces. They are certainly not the cure-all, but they are a big improvement over what he had here before. These new tracks may not be an improvement over what we had here 25 years ago, but those old tracks could not withstand rain. I personally would prefer a regular dirt track, if you could find one that was safe and that holds up when it rains but I'm not sure that such a thing exists. The worst thing for the horses in when they seal the track. When they seal the track, it becomes rock-hard and your horse has a 10x greater chance of getting hurt.
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