If you think high-profile breakdown after high-profile breakdown is going to occur with no consequence, you are kidding yourselves. Of course the problem is ultimately the breed, which has been more screwed up than many of AKC dog breeds, and drugs, but those require hard solutions (indeed, the first would take several horse generations to reverse, even if the will to do so existed, which it doesn't--it has been 30+ years in the making). But running the horses over a chopped up trampoline is a quick, partial fix. It will happen, and horseplayers will adjust. They continue to bet notwithstanding widespread cheating and doping--and they will bet the synthetic tracks when there is really no other choice. So far the changeover has been haphazard and badly researched in advance, but now that it has happened in SoCal and other places, NYRA and the others can learn from them. I seriously doubt there will be a North American Grade I race run on dirt by 2015.
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05-08-2008, 11:24 AM
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