Changing Track Conditions

Pedigree forum post this date: 16 fatalities at Bay Meadows already this year compared to zero at Hollywood Park. Bay Meadows has sand, Hollywood has polytrack. Is it the surface killing the horses at Bay Meadows or the trainers? That there's a lot of horses at Bay Meadows racing safely would be a hint.

What about changing surfaces on the horse, and this includes shipping for races, shipping to a new track, or racing on the same track under different conditions of fast, good, muddy and sloppy?

Tom Ivers fretted about a horses changing track conditions citing such change as significant cause of injury. And, indeed, do we ever want to race a horse on a muddy track. I scan the weather forcasts repeatedly before entering. If it might rain, I pass.

Switching racetracks to me is less a concern than it seemed to Ivers. The track crews are so conscientious and do such a terrific job I believe there is insufficient difference in consistency between the major tracks that shipping is that big a concern. Shipping to a different surface always naggs, and undoubtedly causes some otherwise unexplainable injuries. But with the ubiquitous shipping we see now days all around the world I'm hard pressed to agree with Ivers on this point. However, I'll state my opinion there's a large difference between changing surfaces on a "fit" animal than unfit. On the latter, I'd have to be extremely careful, which has to be the case with the unfit in any event. Additionally, I'd want to avoid moving from a fluffed deep surface such as shown in Barbara Livingston's photo above to a late August sunbaked surface in Texas with $5000 claimers running off in 1:08s.

In my own case, I am always delayed in racing because I train on grass at the farm. Grass fails utterly in bone remodeling, and thus, when I'm bound for Eureka Downs, the hardest surface in the area, I feel uncomfortable unless I've spent at least two months of steady work there before racing. Invariably after the first few gallops at Eureka I'll get some low cannon bone heat that I have to work through and be careful with in the extreme.

So, how do we conclude? Track surfaces are an injury factor, without a doubt, BUT, since this is known, a capable trainer will take this fact sufficiently into account. If the trainer is "incapable", then we have a concern.

(Re Hard Spun and Oaklawn, maybe there's something to that. Jahar in"On the Muscle" (Richard Mandella DVD), we see Jahar struggling with the track surface in the Oaklawn Handicap, even though Jahar caught up after being about 25 lengths back and won the race.)

Today's training:
We're still off due to the hoof laceration. I left too early to check it this morning, but, things looked a little better last night with the flashlight. I'm posting on The Farrier and Hoofcare Resource Center, www.horseshoes.com, to find out what to do about this two inch parallel to the ground hoof crack on the right hind.