by Jeff Lowe

Racing fatalities declined by more than one-third during Golden Gate Fields’s first meeting with a synthetic surface, compared with the rate of racing fatalities in the track’s final few years with a dirt main track.

According to statistics compiled by Rick Arthur, D.V.M., equine medical director of the California Horse Racing Board, ten horses from a total of 4,002 starters died as a result of catastrophic injuries sustained in racing on the new Tapeta surface in the meet that ran from November 7 to February 3.

The rate of 2.50 fatalities per 1,000 starts compares favorably to a rate of 3.90 fatalities per 1,000 starts during the period of January 1, 2004 through the end of live racing on the conventional dirt track on June 10, 2007.

Arthur said five of the ten fatalities in the first meet over the Tapeta surface occurred during an eight-day period from December 29 to January 6.

“Maintenance procedures were changed afterwards and for the last 19 days and 1,238 starts there was one racing fatality,” Arthur said in an email on Tuesday. “The trainers I spoke with have been pleased with the track once the maintenance procedures were changed, especially given the rain in January.

“Overall, there are too few starts to really make any definitive conclusions,” Arthur continued. “As with most of the synthetic surfaces, there are very encouraging trends mixed with unexpected complications.”

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer