Interesting article on new Del Mar surface
RightAngle
Administrator
By JAY PRIVMAN
DEL MAR, Calif. - The debate over the merits and consistency of Del Mar's new Polytrack surface reached a new level of discourse on Monday morning when prominent horse owner Ahmed Zayat and Del Mar's president Joe Harper got into an animated, and at times profane, discussion near the stable area racing office that abruptly ended with Zayat saying he was going to immediately remove his horses from the grounds.
Zayat, who has most of his horses here with trainer Bob Baffert, had minutes earlier been expressing his concern over the consistency of the track. Baffert, Zayat, and several trainers have said Polytrack is firm in the morning, when coastal fog keeps temperatures mild, but loose and tiring in the afternoon, when the sun beats down on the surface.
When Harper walked by, Zayat asked to talk with him, with several onlookers nearby, including Baffert and prominent breeder John Sikura. But what began as a civil exchange over the approach toward maintaining the surface grew heated.
Zayat essentially wanted Harper to promise to tighten the track in the afternoon, perhaps by watering it. Harper said he was not going to go against the advice of Martin Collins, the company that installed Polytrack before this year's meet, which instructed Del Mar not to water the surface.
"I won't mess with it until after the meet is over," Harper said.
Zayat said: "I've heard what I need to hear. I'm not staying here. Goodbye."
Then he briskly turned and walked away.
"There's 300 trainers here coming up and saying they like it," Harper said minutes later. "Nobody wants to see this succeed more than the guy who invented it. We can't have 20 deaths like we did last year. We'll be out of business."
Zayat said he had between 25 and 30 horses currently stabled at Del Mar, with approximately three times that many at Saratoga. Before his discussion with Harper, Zayat said he had been planning on spending the summer at Del Mar because he preferred the atmosphere here.
"People who say they are behind these artificial surfaces say they doing it for safety, but they cannot be holier than the Pope," Zayat said. "The tracks have to be consistent. You can't have different tracks and say it's safe and fair. It's the epitome of hypocrisy."
Zayat said he was of the belief that "what distinguishes American racing is speed," but that Polytrack was "artificially slowing down" brilliant horses. "The way the Thoroughbred runs is so majestic," he said. "Why are we doing this?
"No one is against safety," Zayat added. "But what is the right surface? I'm totally supportive of synthetic surfaces. But you need a surface that is both safe and maintains the integrity of racing. You can't take the speed out."
Harper said the slew of horse deaths last summer at Del Mar and Arlington Park - which also installed Polytrack earlier this year - would "make us the Michael Vick of horse racing" if the tracks had not made a change.
"This is a safety issue for us," Harper said. "I'd love to see the track tighten up in the afternoon. Do we need more wax? That's possible. Do we need more fiber? That's possible. Do we need jelly cables? That's possible.
"The bottom line is all the horses are coming back" from the races in one piece, Harper said.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The debate over the merits and consistency of Del Mar's new Polytrack surface reached a new level of discourse on Monday morning when prominent horse owner Ahmed Zayat and Del Mar's president Joe Harper got into an animated, and at times profane, discussion near the stable area racing office that abruptly ended with Zayat saying he was going to immediately remove his horses from the grounds.
Zayat, who has most of his horses here with trainer Bob Baffert, had minutes earlier been expressing his concern over the consistency of the track. Baffert, Zayat, and several trainers have said Polytrack is firm in the morning, when coastal fog keeps temperatures mild, but loose and tiring in the afternoon, when the sun beats down on the surface.
When Harper walked by, Zayat asked to talk with him, with several onlookers nearby, including Baffert and prominent breeder John Sikura. But what began as a civil exchange over the approach toward maintaining the surface grew heated.
Zayat essentially wanted Harper to promise to tighten the track in the afternoon, perhaps by watering it. Harper said he was not going to go against the advice of Martin Collins, the company that installed Polytrack before this year's meet, which instructed Del Mar not to water the surface.
"I won't mess with it until after the meet is over," Harper said.
Zayat said: "I've heard what I need to hear. I'm not staying here. Goodbye."
Then he briskly turned and walked away.
"There's 300 trainers here coming up and saying they like it," Harper said minutes later. "Nobody wants to see this succeed more than the guy who invented it. We can't have 20 deaths like we did last year. We'll be out of business."
Zayat said he had between 25 and 30 horses currently stabled at Del Mar, with approximately three times that many at Saratoga. Before his discussion with Harper, Zayat said he had been planning on spending the summer at Del Mar because he preferred the atmosphere here.
"People who say they are behind these artificial surfaces say they doing it for safety, but they cannot be holier than the Pope," Zayat said. "The tracks have to be consistent. You can't have different tracks and say it's safe and fair. It's the epitome of hypocrisy."
Zayat said he was of the belief that "what distinguishes American racing is speed," but that Polytrack was "artificially slowing down" brilliant horses. "The way the Thoroughbred runs is so majestic," he said. "Why are we doing this?
"No one is against safety," Zayat added. "But what is the right surface? I'm totally supportive of synthetic surfaces. But you need a surface that is both safe and maintains the integrity of racing. You can't take the speed out."
Harper said the slew of horse deaths last summer at Del Mar and Arlington Park - which also installed Polytrack earlier this year - would "make us the Michael Vick of horse racing" if the tracks had not made a change.
"This is a safety issue for us," Harper said. "I'd love to see the track tighten up in the afternoon. Do we need more wax? That's possible. Do we need more fiber? That's possible. Do we need jelly cables? That's possible.
"The bottom line is all the horses are coming back" from the races in one piece, Harper said.