While browsing the news today I came across a piece by Bill Finley for TDN Magazine. It is titled “Ground Control: The (REAL) Truth about Synthetic Tracks”. Finley is a strong proponent of synthetic surfaces and he uses the article as a platform to dispel rumors about the surfaces. He makes good use of statistical figures and does a good job of reasoning that the tracks have saved the lives of horses. I can agree with Finley; to an extent.

What is good for me may not necessarily be good for you. Horses are much safer competing on Poly Track in a very cold place like Turfway Park. This may or may not be true for the same horses at Santa Anita, Keeneland, or Del Mar. It must be considered that the cold weather in Florence, KY makes dirt at Turfway Park less safe. Adding Poly Track there made perfect sense. People quickly jumped to conclusions after seeing a decline in injuries and fatalities at Turfway. I’ve listed below a few that I have problems with.

• Richard Shapiro acted hastily and without enough data and evidence when he mandated that all California tracks install a synthetic surface. I believe his heart was in the right place, but from a logical sense these tracks shouldn’t have been forced on California until more data was available.
• Tracks that quickly decided to install synthetic surfaces did not consider variables such as the cold weather at Turfway Park, and the fact that they run mostly cheap horses there. I’m not a veterinarian or a trainer, but I would think that cheap horses are more susceptible to injury in the first place.

I plan on going into this subject further when I have more time, but for now I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Click here to read Bill Finley’s article.