Tropical Park ran on dirt until its unfortunate demise in 1970/1, thereabouts. Since then, Calder has run the dates assigned to the Tropical Park Racing Association in November and December. Calder had its first meeting in May 1971 and had "Tartan track", a brainchild of the track's main backer Charles McKnight of 3M (and Tartan Farm). The Am. Racing Manual describes this as "sand over a synthetic surface."
Before Calder, there was no summer racing in Florida and the Tartan track was an attempt to allow the track to be usable during periods of heavy summer rain.
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