Residual effects of "overfast" track at SA

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

As far as dirt tracks labeled fast go - I saw a statistical study that would suggest the speed of the track and the safety of the surface are two entirely different things.

In fact, when a dirt track labeled fast was producing final times much slower than par, horses who ran over it were less likely to make their next start within 90 days.

When it was much faster than par, horses who ran over it were slightly more likely to make their next start within the next 90 days - than those who ran over the track when it was producing times closer to par for the class levels.

I want to say this was limited to the five major tracks in California. It didn't have to do with track speed and time between starts only -but it didn't get into what kind of injuries and it was more of a study comparing what effects varrying tracks speeds have on a wide variety of things - such as running styles, path and post biases, time between starts, etc etc.

Why do they even need the 7 inches of cushion track? Why don't they just run on the asphalt then? That's obviously an extreme example, but you get my point. If they ran on the asphalt, you would have all kinds of fractures. By the same token, the less cushion they have and the closer they are to the asphalt, and the harder and faster the track is, the more dangerous it is.

That's not to say that there aren't other factors. I'm sure you could have a slow track that was dangerous. But all things being equal, when you have a rock-hard track and you are getting lightning-fast times, you need to be concerned. I know all the jockeys and all the trainers were extremely concerned about it.