by Paul Post

The New York Racing Association will not install synthetic surfaces for two or three years and would start at Aqueduct if such material is used at all, NYRA President Charles Hayward said on Tuesday.

Hayward was one of 16 presenters, which included racetrack executives, jockeys, trainers, veterinarians, and researchers, who testified before the New York Task Force on Retired Racehorses in Saratoga Springs.

The panel has a two-fold goal of studying synthetic racetrack issues and investigating various uses for retired racehorses. It plans to report back to state lawmakers next year.

“Were we to decide that it’s the right thing to do, we’d probably start at the tracks where the weather is most volatile and that would probably be Aqueduct,” Hayward said. “At Aqueduct, we don’t have a training track. We race and train on one surface. It would be the main dirt track.”

That is a reversal from a year ago, when NYRA officials were said to be contemplating the installation of a synthetic surface for Belmont Park’s training track.

Aqueduct, however, runs during the winter and early spring compared to Belmont’s spring/summer and autumn meets. Installing a synthetic surface there hopefully would result in fewer cancellations, larger fields, and increased wagering, trends that tracks such as Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky and Woodbine near Toronto have experienced since Polytrack was installed at each.

The overriding theme of Tuesday’s session was that New York should not rush into anything. In California, where synthetic surfaces are mandated, there have been numerous maintenance problems and allegations of increased soft-tissue injuries to ligaments and tendons.

Jockey Richard Migliore said that synthetic surfaces perform differently from morning to afternoon depending on weather conditions, which compromises handicapping.

There also are inconclusive results about potential respiratory impacts of artificial material to horses and riders.

“What you heard today is a lot of anecdotal information,” Hayward said. “What’s going to happen first before we make the decision to adopt it is more specific data.

“Turfway Park was driven to do this because they were having over three breakdowns per thousand starters,” Hayward said. “California had over three per thousand. They were mandated to do it. We’re one of the lowest in the country at 1.4 [breakdowns] per thousand. Saratoga was safer last year in 36 days of racing than Del Mar’s 42 days. They had many more breakdowns than we did."

At the moment, NYRA remains in bankruptcy and does not have the finances to install synthetic surfaces, which would cost more than $10-million per track. NYRA desperately needs new gaming revenue from Aqueduct’s proposed video lottery terminal facility to even consider major capital improvements. Governor David Paterson currently is evaluating bids from three separate entities.

“You pick the date when VLTs will get going.” Hayward said. “About 15 or 16 months after that, we’ll have the money to start making these investments.”

Racino construction is expected to take at least a year, meaning a facility could be operational in late 2009 if Paterson makes a decision soon. Using Hayward’s timeline, synthetic material might not be installed until 2011 at the earliest.

Prominent equine veterinarians such as California’s Richard Arthur, D.V.M., told panelists that racing surfaces are one of many contributing factors to catastrophic injuries.

“It’s become easy to blame the racetrack,” he said. “To think we can solve the problem simply by addressing track surfaces is really naïve.”

Poor breeding, improper training and exercise practices also must be considered, Arthur said. However, he does believe that synthetic surfaces eventually will become the industry standard.

“I do think that the marketplace will eventually demand synthetic surfaces once some of the growing pains, some of the ambiguities on how to maintain them and how to construct these racetracks, are solved,” he said. “It’s such a financial benefit to the racing industry to keep horses racing longer that they’ll do it whether it’s mandated or not.”

Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent