About Engineered Surfaces
Engineered surfaces have been used successfully in European flat racing since 1989, when Lingfield in England installed Equitrack (later switched to Polytrack). Today, several tracks in Europe have well-accepted synthetic surfaces that enable them to hold races in the winter. Moreover, engineered surfaces are widely installed and highly regarded in Europe as training gallops, and some of the better trainers with larger stables are now pointing their late developing horses to tracks with engineered surfaces for winter racing.
The modern era of Thoroughbred racing on engineered surfaces in North American began in 2005, when Turfway Park, located just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, held its fall meet on the newly-installed Polytrack surface. With temperature swings common during a Northern Kentucky winter, Turfway’s annual winter meet often saw repeated cancellations because the track would freeze and thaw unevenly. Extreme cold can still force a cancellation, but since the installation of Polytrack, Turfway no longer faces the freeze-thaw problem and has never had to cancel due to rain. Most important, catastrophic injuries have been significantly reduced (see Turfway Park statistics as well as Feb. 16, 2011 article in “News” regarding five-plus years of success with the engineered surface at Turfway).
Keeneland (an hour south of Turfway Park, in Lexington, Kentucky) and Woodbine (Toronto, Ontario) converted to Polytrack in 2006, with similar results.
Also in 2006, the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) — with the support of the Jockey’s Guild, Thoroughbred owners and tracks —mandated that all major tracks in the state install an engineered surface by Jan. 1, 2008. Hollywood Park (Inglewood, California) complied by installing Cushion Track in 2006.
Del Mar (Del Mar, CA) and Golden Gate Fields (Berkeley, CA) followed in 2007.
Statistics compiled by the CHRB showed a 40 percent drop in fatalities during races on engineered surfaces compared to dirt tracks from Jan. 1, 2004 through Sep. 9, 2009. The Jockey Club conducted a 13-month pilot program from 2007-2008, and concluded that the rate of catastrophic injuries on tracks with engineered surfaces was 27.59 percent less than on dirt surfaces. A subsequent Jockey Club report, released in December 2010 and including cumulative two-year data, revealed a statistically significant difference in the prevalence of fatality on both turf and synthetic surfaces versus dirt. (See http://engineeredracingsurfaces.com/2010/12/jockey-club-news-release/.)
