Expert offers tips on preparing horse stalls for winter

Keeping and maintaining a proper stall is imperative in horse care. Dr. Karen Hayes is an expert in the area and has written seven Horse Care books, including The Perfect Stall Series, as well as over 700 articles.

Hayes says windows and doors need to remain open in order to guarantee proper ventilation.

“The most important thing right now for horses that are going to be brought in for the winter, would be to make sure that the air they breathe in the stall is as close as possible to the air they breathe when they are outside,” explains Hayes. “So, we don’t want to close up the barn, that’s thinking like a human – we need to think like a horse.”

Hayes says there are many items that contribute to the need for good ventilation, but one of the major factors is ammonia.

“Ammonia fumes are a significant problem for horses that live in stalls,” Hayes says. “And because we tend to think of the time we spend with horses as our down time – its our time that we’re away from the hustle and bustle and the stress of our work day lives – we sort of associate all of the things about being in the horse barn with positive things, including the way barns smell.”

Just like humans, high levels of ammonia are very dangerous to a horse’s health. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) restricts employers to not allow an employee be in an environment where ammonia fumes are as high as 50 parts-per-million for longer than 2 hours during the day. These restrictions are to ensure safety in the work environment because research has found that high amounts of ammonia can burn a person’s lungs and may even cause them to get respiratory infections. And as Hayes explains, its the same case for horses.

“Now think about your horses who aren’t in an ammonia laden environment for two hours – they live in that stall. I have tested ammonia fumes in fancy show barns as well as humble backyard shacks and everything in between with the same instrument OSHA uses and found ammonia levels as high as 450 parts per million.” So, Hayes says with the proper ventilation, the ammonia count will decrease significantly.

Another housekeeping tip Hayes has for horse owners is to use bedding that will not only absorb the urine, but provide support to the horse’s feet.

“A lot of people don’t realize that horses don’t actually bear all of their weight on the edges of their feet,” Hayes explains. “When the rims of the hoof kind of dig in a little bit to the turf, then what is underneath bulges up and provides support to the cup that’s inside the horse’s foot. And there is supposed to be support to that as well.”

There are several ways for horse owners to learn more about the proper housekeeping techniques. Besides reading her books, she suggests visiting two websites, www.perfectstall.com and www.integralhorse.com

Iowa-Breds Race at The Sioux County Fair

It’s not the Meadowlands, where harness racing’s prestigious $1.5 million Hambletonian Final was raced this past Saturday, but there’s a lot to be said for the Sioux County Fair track at Sioux Center, Iowa, where the Midwest Circuit settled in for two programs this past Friday and Saturday.

Beginning the third leg of the fair season, 81 2- and 3-year-olds went to post in 14 races on Friday evening, competing for purses ranging from $6,450 to $1,500. Total purse money paid on the two days was nearly $100,000.

Under picturesque blue skies, with normal summer temperatures at last, the spacious, black dirt track in extreme northwest Iowa was groomed to speed-enhancing perfection on Friday, thanks to the diligence of superintendent of speed Merlin Van Otterloo and his extended family, whose racing stable is headquartered at Rock Valley, Iowa.

A full page of local sponsors were recognized in the programs for their generosity in providing prizes and amenities for fans and horsemen.

A field of seven sophomore colts set the pace when the program opened, when Panaramic Art (Hot Pans–Kelly Graham) won a 2:023 mile with Will Roland aboard, and won by a nose in a photo finish with the Hot Pans gelding Sendhimdownthepike, reined by Royal Roland. Will Roland trains both geldings for owner Roger Roland of Grinnell, Iowa.

Gary Liles steered the 3-year-old Proud Crown trotter Victor Beach to the winner’s circle for the fourth time in four starts for owner Paul Liles of Batavia, Iowa, in 2:032, the colt’s best time since the fall meet at Prairie Meadows, and the fastest mile in his division this year. Lucky Will (Mark Mintun) finished second and Mighty Kicker (Brandon Jenson) finished third.

Dan Roland’s 5-year-old grandson of Speedy Crown, I Pity The Fool, nipped the exuberant Zippy Star (Gary Hafner) at the wire, in 2:031, in what was the speediest trotting mile of the evening, in which Diamond Brand and driver Brandon Jenson finished third.

Zippy Star had set a new trotting standard of 2:01 on the Clark County Fair track at Kahoka, Mo. the previous Saturday, bettering a 2:032 mile by NBA’s BadBoy and driver Nick Roland, set in 2003. I Pity The Fool finished second and Diamond Brand finished third at Kahoka. Roland’s colt raced in 2:01 at Eldon, Iowa in June, and he and “Zippy” are currently tied in the circuit standings.

Sioux Center’s 2:001 trotting mark, set by Beech Nut Brand and Brandon Simpson in 2005, was also wiped out the previous weekend by the phenomenal trotting-bred pacer, Photo Dream, who has turned into a 9-year-old trotter in 2006 for Banks Standardbreds, of Cannon Falls, Minn. On July 29 he took one-fifth of a second off the record by trotting a 2:00 mile at Sioux Center.

The freshman pacer Indian Crazy Horse is undefeated in seven starts this year, having lowered his mark, taken on the speedy oval at the Southern Iowa Fair in Oskaloosa on July 24 to 2:024, at Sioux Center. The gelding by Indian Sunset and out of Creative Drama (Bruce Gimble) is owned by Roger Roland and is trained and driven by Will Roland.

Aaron Mitchell’s Beau Chip trotter Perry Yoder won in 2:041 and posted his third win in seven starts, and has yet to finish out of the money in his sophomore year. The colt has earned more than $25,000 in Iowa.

The 3-year-old trotter Natiemadiemaryann dug-in and set a new lifetime mark of 2:061 this past Friday night for new owner David Schneider of Coral Springs, Fla., trainer Curtis Carey, and driver Brandon Simpson, after she battled an arduous challenge by Aaron Mitchell’s Beau Chip filly Karen Miller at the three-quarter pole.

In response, Stormin Gal (Rick Huffman) lowered her season’s mark, and matched Natiemadiemaryann’s 2:061 win, and the two Iowa-bred fillies are thus neck and neck in the circuit standings.

Alan Sandbulte competed with both his sons-in-law, Brandon Simpson and Will Roland, in his division of Friday’s Iowa-registered 2-year-old filly pace, in which the three won purse money. Brandon Simpson and Pacific Flora triumphed in 2:034 for the Kohlwes Racing Stable LLC, Simpson Racing LLC, and Will Roland, who trains the daughter of Pacific Missile. Sandbulte finished second with his own Khakisredneck, and Will Roland won fifth place money with his grandmother, Judy Roland’s, JR Flash.

Will Roland made himself quite at home this past Friday night, on his wife Rebecca’s home track, where he won four of the 14 races, including a $6,450 pace with the couples’ own filly, Hot Panties, by Hot Pans, who is now a winner of four out of seven starts in her
freshman year.

Will and “Bec” were married this past January and are taking a “working honeymoon” this summer, racing a large stable for Will Roland’s paternal grandparents, Roger and Judy Roland of Grinnell, and he is taking a few catch-drives, as well. Will Roland has had a substantial, year-long lead in the circuit’s driver standings, and Rebecca, the stable’s “groom,” is often credited in the winner’s circle for the stable’s astounding success this year.

The Sioux Center track was faster yet on Saturday, though the races were delayed until 6 p.m. because of heavy overnight rainfall, but once the track was pronounced ready 88 horses contested 14 races in record time, concluding just as the evening rains began.

As daylight waned, toward the middle of the race card, Homestead Popper left the gate quickly for trainer-driver Adam Hauser and posted a wire-to-wire win which yielded a new lifetime mark for the son of Lucky Twenty Five and Fill The Dream, she by Crowning Point. The two year old full-brother of Homestead Dreamer, bred and owned by Kermit L. Hinshaw of Richland, Iowa, won in 2:071 and earned the winner’s share of a $6,450 purse and was followed home by Lucky Redneckand Proud Valiant, in that order.

Tears of inspiration flowed during an incredibly quick Flying Dutchman Memorial Pace Final when Brian Larson of Canton, S.D. urged his 3-year-old gelding Mattjestic Crombie to a 1:592 victory in the race named in memory of the late Pete Vande Velde, of Rock Valley, Iowa.

Pete, nicknamed “the Flying Dutchman” by announcer Ron Banks several years ago, succumbed to cancer earlier this year. A friend and mentor to Brian Larson and countless others who are members of Iowa’s harness racing family, Vande Velde left a lasting legacy to harness racing in Iowa.

Vande Velde began his racing career with a black colt which was given to his daughter, Lori, as a weanling. The family registered him with the name Rolling Thunder, derived from a phrase in a favorite hymn, and 40 years ago Rolling Thunder raced at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines and won his division, with big-hearted effort, in two heats. After the win the family realized their colt had won with a broken splint bone.

Vande Velde was inducted into Iowa’s Harness Racing Hall of Fame in January 2003 at the age of 79.

“ ‘The Flying Dutchman’ was with us the whole mile,” Brian Larson said to Vande Velde’s wife of 59 years, LaVonne, while family and friends gathered for a winner’s circle photo. Just then, a rainbow appeared in the eastern sky, over the horse barns, but the heavy rain that was to come held off a bit longer.

Mattjestic Crombie and Casey Larson are en route to Saratoga, N.Y. this week, where the pacer will race under new ownership, and Brian and Kim Larson’s first-born son will pursue a training career.

The 2006 Iowa State Fair will begin this week, and harness races will be conducted on Thursday and Friday, August 10 and 11, beginning at 12:30 p.m. (CDT), both days. A total of 119 horses were entered, the Iowa Sire Stakes will be raced on Thursday, and the Junie Manatt
Memorial Pace will be featured on Friday. Hopefully, the rain in the forecast will not prevent racing at the State Fair as it did in 2005.

Grandstand admission is free for the races, and fans may play “Pick the Winner” for cash and prizes, including a chance to win $1,500 in the “Out’a the Gate Cash” drawing, to be held at Prairie Meadows on Saturday, September 23.

The current top-10 drivers on the circuit include Will Roland, Brandon Simpson, Adam Hauser, Rick Huffman, Gary Hafner, Aaron Mitchell, Scott Smith, Gary Liles, Dan Roland, and Royal Roland.

For the remainder of Iowa’s racing schedule, results, and standings visit www.iowaracing.freeservers.com.

Courtesy Of Mary Lou Lawless for Iowa Harness Racing

technorati tags:harness, racing, iowa, county, fair, sioux

Hambletonian To Be Broadcast Live on CBS

For the 13th straight year, the Hambletonian, harness racing’s premier event, will air live on CBS Sports.

The broadcast of 81st edition of the $1.5 million Hambletonian and the filly companion event, the $750,000 Hambletonian Oaks, is from 2 to 3 p.m. [EDT] on Saturday, August 5, live from the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The Hambletonian remains the only harness race to be nationally televised by one of the four major networks. The CBS coverage of the event has won multiple John Hervey Awards and several international awards for excellence in broadcasting. The Meadowlands has been the
Home of the Hambletonian since 1981.

Hosting the show will be Gary Seibel, who will be joined by analysts Caton Bredar, Jay Privman, Meadowlands announcer and TV host Ken Warkentin and Hall of Fame trainer Ron Gurfein.

Seibel, a veteran harness racing broadcaster, has been a part of the Hambletonian broadcast since 1989 and a member of the CBS Hambletonian broadcast team since 1994. Seibel has covered racing for ESPN, SportsChannel and Prime Network. He also co-hosted the American Championship Harness Series programs and the Breeders Crown, harness racing’s divisional championship series, for more than a decade. Seibel currently serves as an anchor for the
TVG Network, the interactive horse racing network. Seibel has been with TVG since its inception as one of the sport’s acknowledged authorities.

Caton Bredar is a descendent of the late Hall of Fame jockey Ted Atkinson and the 1932 Hambletonian-winning driver Will Caton, for whom she is named. She was born in Palatine, Illinois, and, as the daughter of trainer Ray Metzler, spent her high school, college and post college days, riding and working with racehorses and earned her trainer’s license at age 16. Bredar made the shift from the barn area to management, and after working in publicity, marketing and special events, branched off into television.

Her many roles included on-track handicapper and eventually reporting and producing features for the nightly results show, “Chicago Racing Report,” airing on what is now Fox Sports Chicago, as well as the weekly stakes broadcast “Arlington Live,” which aired on WBBM-TV. During that time, she also worked for ABC Sports as a production assistant and researcher for the American Championship Racing Series and the Visa Triple Crown. She has since been the racing reporter or analyst for ESPN, ESPN2 and FOX Network.

In 1999, Bredar relocated to Los Angeles and helped launch the new horse racing network, TVG. For nearly five years she was lead anchor for the Television Games Network. Bredar is currently on the news staff of WAVE TV-3 in Louisville. She made her first appearance on WAVE 3 for last year’s Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby and was part of the team that earned the station an Eclipse for local horse racing coverage.

Jay Privman, a national correspondent for the Daily Racing Form, former analyst for FOX television and West Coast correspondent for the New York Times, has written several books on thoroughbred racing and is a five-time Red Smith Award winner.

Announcer and TV host Ken Warkentin has been a member of the Meadowlands Racetrack media department since May of 1991. Warkentin started with a Top 40 radio station in Ontario and still follows the music business but landed in racing with a job at Flamboro Downs.

The 47-year-old Toronto native began pursuing his goals after he graduated from Seneca College in Toronto with a degree in radio and television broadcasting in 1981. Now a citizen of both Canada and the United States, Ken resides with his wife, Jennifer, and their two children, Abby, 3 and Andrew, 2, in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.

Warkentin recently co-hosted the Hambletonian preview show that aired on OLN with fellow Meadowlands broadcaster Dave Brower.

Joining the broadcast team for the first time is Hall of Fame trainer Ron Gurfein, who has won a trio of Hambletonians and was inducted into the Harness Racing’s Living Hall of Fame in July. One of his most memorable moments in his career was his 1996 Hambletonian win with the filly Continentalvictory, who went on to become Horse of the Year. Gurfein is known as “The Guru” for his prowess with trotters.

His victory in 1:51.3 with Self Possessed in 1999 still stands as the Hambletonian stakes record. The first of his three Hambletonian triumphs came with Victory Dream in 1994.

The American Association of Equine Practitioners [AAEP] “Vet On Call” for the broadcast will be Dr. Scott Palmer of the New Jersey Equine Clinic in Clarksburg, New Jersey.

LIMITED DINING & SEATING AVAILABLE FOR HAMBLETONIAN DAY

Limited dining and $5 reserved seats are still available for Saturday, Hambletonian Day at the Meadowlands.

For information or to make reservations, visit the Guest Service Center at the track or call 201-THEBIGM.

Courtesy Of The Meadowlands Media Relations Department

technorati tags:harness, racing, hambletonian, cbs

Record Set at Knox County Fair – Knoxville, Illinois

Here is a good article about the harness races at the Knox County Fair. Click on the link below to read the article.

The Register-Mail

Huffmans’ work pays off with record The Register-Mail,?IL?- 10 hours ago For the last three years, they jogged their young harness racing horse four miles a day and spent two days a week speed training the colt for six to seven …

technorati tags:harness, racing, illinois, knox, county, fair, tom, busse

Do Horses Have Vertical Vision?

QUESTION:
I follow Pat Parelli’s training methodology. While doing the exercise of desensitizing my horse to a ball, I quickly realized that her focus never followed the ball over her head. If I rolled it at her feet, or played with the ball anywhere below her eye-level, she followed it. But, when I tossed it above her head, she never followed it up, and she was always (not surprisingly, I suppose) startled when came back down within her view. Why is it that dogs and cats follow objects that go up, but horses (or maybe it’s just my horse) do not?

ANSWER:
First, your horse is like every other horse I have seen in this situation. Second, these observations are consistent with those of others. Horses generally don’t “look up.” This question comes up often in regards to aircraft and horses, and why in some situations aircraft don’t seem to bother horses and why in other situations they seem to be problematic, in that the horse is startled when they come into view.

A more common management situation in which this characteristic becomes apparent is when you are throwing hay down from above to a horse or group of horses waiting for it, say from a hay loft above a feeding area, or from a high vehicle, or throwing hay up over a high fence.

Managers often find horses “stupid” when they fail to get out of the way, or even dash into the path of the falling hay. It often startles the horses when, as you noticed with the ball, the hay comes into view.

We have a loft where we can drop hay down directly to a loafing area. With several different occupants of that pasture over the years I have tried, informally, to train the horse to look up in this situation by calling to them before dropping the hay.

They learn by simple conditioning to anticipate that the hay will fall, but they can’t stay out of the way. Often in anticipation they scurry into the path rather than away from the hay. They don’t focus on it so they can see where it will fall.

The usual explanation from behavioral biology about species differences in such behavior goes back to the environment in which the species evolved and their important needs to forage and avoid predation.

The most accepted reason why horses don’t look up is that equids have evolved as open-plain grazers, where the predators are on the ground and not from above as they might be in a forest environment.

The ability most important to open-plain species that are prey to carnivores is to be able to focus well on distant movement and have a wide peripheral field of vision. Through evolution, these abilities are favored and the ability to look up is lost.

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Question Answered by Dennis Brooks, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVO (ophthalmology), a professor of ophthalmology, University of Florida, gives us this fact: The horizontal pupil of the horse eye allows for a panoramic view of the horse’s surroundings. They see best in a horizontal rather than a vertical plane.

technorati tags:horse, vision, harness, racing

Business Is Going Strong At Cal-Expo

The Sacramento Harness Association completed a 118-day winter/spring meet on Saturday (29 July), showing significant increases in handle and attendance.

Bolstered by a 12.1 percent increase in attendance, average nightly on-track handle rose 11.8 percent to $59,116. Advanced deposit/telephone wagering spiked 64.7 percent, a nightly average of $85,778. California off-track wagering improved to $558,393 nightly, an increase of 9.7 percent.

Out-of-state wagering also increased, up 9.5 percent nightly to $169,078.

These across the board gains improved total nightly handle to $872,366, up 13.6 percent over the same meet last year.

“These results are attributable to our horsemen, owners, and a very hard working and dedicated staff,” said Chris Schick, General Manager of Sacramento Harness. “The main challenge facing us is keeping full and competitive fields on the track each night.

We have high hopes that our recently announced new horse incentive plan can help accomplish that.”

Sacramento Harness recently reached an agreement with Cal-Expo to operate the State Fair meet, beginning on Wednesday August 2nd. This agreement makes Sacramento Harness the year-round operator of Cal-Expo harness racing.

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Courtesy of Scott Ehrlich, Publicity Director, Sacramento Harness Association

technorati tags:harness, racing, cal, expo, handle, 2007

Illinois Horse Racing Dates For 2007 Have Been Requested

There were few surprises Monday as the Illinois Racing Board announced dates applications for 2007.

Arlington Park made no grab for the spring live slot normally held by the National Jockey Club, but Arlington management did request a four-day racing week at the beginning and end of its proposed 2007 calendar. The track would run live five days per week from June 20 to Aug. 31 and present the abbreviated weeks in May, much of June and September.

The Carey family and it’s associates at Hawthorne Race Course requested a spring thoroughbred meet in addition to the track’s normal fall thoroughbred and summer harness schedules. It likely would pick up the spring flats if the IRB rules that the NJC’s precarious financial underpinning makes it ineligible for 2007 considerations. The IRB will hold its 2007 dates hearing on Sept. 19.

On the sulky side, the Johnston family once again is attempting to re-establish its full-year monopoly on harness racing with a year-round schedule split between Balmoral Park (Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays) and Maywood Park (Thursdays and Fridays). The Careys and their Suburban Downs group have asked to maintain their nighttime summer beachhead at the historic Stickney spa from June 3 through Aug. 31.

2007 DATES REQUESTS

THOROUGHBRED

Arlington Park: May 4-Sept. 30 (100 programs).

Fairmount Park: Jan. 1-Dec. 31 (150 programs).

Hawthorne Race Course: Jan. 1-2; Feb. 23-May 6; Sept. 14-Dec. 31 (131 programs).

National Jockey Club at Hawthorne: Feb. 23-May 4 (49 programs).

HARNESS

Racing Associates Inc. at Maywood Park: Jan. 1-Dec. 31 (103 programs).

Maywood Park Trotting Association: Jan. 1-Dec. 31 (103 programs).

Balmoral Racing Club Inc.: Jan. 1-Dec. 31 (261 programs).

Suburban Downs at Hawthorne: June 3-Aug. 31 (77 programs).

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article by Jim O’Donnell. http://www.suntimes.com/output/horse/cst-spt-irb01.html

technorati tags:harness, racing, thoroughbred, dates, request, 2007

Mr Pine Chip: A Dream Come True

Mr Pine Chip –

Joe Sbrocco could not get Miss Pine Chip to the races, but he never doubted her talent. Rather than wait to see if he could turn her into a champion, he bred her.

The result might land him in the winner’s circle after Saturday afternoon’s (August 5) $1.5 million Hambletonian at the Meadowlands.

Sbrocco was an elated owner when his red-hot colt, Mr Pine Chip, won his Hambletonian elimination race July 29 at the Meadowlands Racetrack. It was the culmination of a dream for Sbrocco, who derived from Mr Pine Chip something he could never get from the colt’s mother – a chance to win harness racing’s post prestigious prize.

“This represents a lifelong dream,” Sbrocco said. “I’ve been in the business a long time, and I’ve had my ups and downs, spent a lot of money over the years. We could never get [Miss Pine Chip] to the races. Finally, I said I’ve got to breed her.

“When she was training I thought she was going to be a champion, but she never turned out,” he explained. “The mare was so smooth, every step of the way. She was so super looking. She started hitting her knees, and we couldn’t get her out. Instead of having her bang them, I decided to turn her out and breed her [to SJ’s Caviar] instead of waiting for a year and coming back with her. This is the only broodmare I have.”

Mr Pine Chip won five of 13 races last year and earned $290,508 under the tutelage of trainer Jim Arledge Jr. He won the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Final and was second in the Breeders Crown to Chocolatier, another Hambletonian finalist. This season, he was turned over to trainer Trond Smedshammer and has been unbeaten in six starts, including the $375,000 Stanley Dancer Memorial Final at the Meadowlands.

Sbrocco, who lives outside of Cleveland in Brecksville, Ohio, sold 50 percent of the colt on March 10 of this year to Allen and Connie Skolnick of Southwind Farms in Pennington, New Jersey.

“It was for more than $500,000, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it,” Sbrocco said at the time. “I love that horse. Jim Arledge is a great trainer and did a great job with him. I feel very bad about taking the horse away from him, and from Mike Martindill, the groom. Jim still has horses for me. He understands. It’s an insurance policy. If something were to happen, I’d kick myself for not doing it.”

Smedshammer, who has won five of the last six Trotting Triple Crown races and also qualified Here Comes Herbie and Blue Mac Lad, won the 2004 Hambletonian with Windsong’s Legacy. Smedshammer switched drivers from Dave Palone to Brian Sears, the Meadowlands top driver, last month.

Last Saturday in his Hambletonian elim, Mr Pine Chip split horses in the final 70 yards and drew off to a three-quarter-length victory in 1:53.4. He followed Glidemaster’s outside tier on the backstretch and sprinted to his 11th win in 19 career starts, giving him $571,905 in
lifetime earnings. “Mr Pine Chip is a horse that doesn’t know where the wire is,” said Smedshammer. “He just keeps coming at the end of the mile and horses like that will just do a lot of good.”

Despite needing to only finish among the top five in a six-horse field to advance to the final, Sbrocco did not relax until the race was completed.

“I never knew whether I was going to make it or not, even though there were only six horses in that race,” he said. “Winning is even better and to do it easily. We never really pushed the colt; it feels good that way.”

Sears could not be happier with Mr Pine Chip’s performance.

“He’s a real nice colt and he shows it by his card, all wins this year,” Sears said. “He knows how to get it done. He was very comfortable. I really liked the draw. When I saw it come out, I thought I might get that trip and everything worked out. Everything looks real good right now for the final.”

That is good news for Sbrocco, a 65-year-old retired title company owner who learned about driving and training horses from his father-in-law, Bob Cole. In addition to Mr Pine Chip, Sbrocco will see his 2-Year-Old trotter Mythical Lindy race in Thursday’s $456,000 Peter Haughton Memorial at the Meadowlands.

“I’m going to be nervous,” Sbrocco said. “I’ve got a lot of people coming up next week. I’m so glad we made the final because people have been making a lot of arrangements. I’m just hoping we at least take part of that chunk. It’ll be the most thrilling week I’ve had, ever. You can’t top it. Win or lose, it’s a big year.”

Courtesy Of The Meadowlands Media Relations Department

technorati tags:harness, racing, hambletonian, mr, pine, chip, trot, trotter

Racetrack technology treads on gentle ground

By CECILY CAIRNS
The News Journal

Michael Dickinson has several reasons to count legendary Irish trainer Vincent O’Brien as his hero.

O’Brien, for whom Dickinson galloped horses in the 1970s in Ireland, saddled 40 champions in his career, including winners of six Epsom Derbies.

But Dickinson, now a prominent U.S. trainer, finds one number especially striking: In O’Brien’s 28 years of training, only two of his horses suffered a broken leg.

That low breakdown rate wasn’t just luck. O’Brien was one of the first to tamper with track surfaces as an injury preventative.

“He was way ahead of everybody else with surfaces,” Dickinson said. “He ignited my passion for surfaces.”

Three decades and an ocean away from O’Brien’s groundwork, that passion is still alight — and it’s catching on throughout the horse racing industry.

With breakdowns and unsoundness coursing through the sport, including Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro’s just after the start of the Preakness, horsemen are eager to find solutions.

“The injury factor is perhaps more critical now than it has been, because there is a widespread perception — not just among fans, but also among owners and breeders — that the Thoroughbred species in general has become much more fragile over the last few decades,” said ESPN horse racing analyst Randy Moss. “There’s a lot of controversy over what the root cause of that may be.”

Racing surface is one cause under exploration.

In 2005, Kentucky’s Turfway Park became the first major U.S. track to replace its main oval with a synthetic substance, with Keeneland to follow this fall. In February, the California Horse Racing Board mandated that its tracks must do the same.

Fair Hill Training Center in Fair Hill, Md. — already a state-of-the-art stomping ground for equine conditioners — will become the latest facility to give artificial surfaces a whirl.

Instead of the Polytrack used at Turfway, Fair Hill is turning to Dickinson. Dickinson, who opened a farm in North East, Md., in 1998, has been manufacturing his own all-weather track surface for eight years.

“It was one thing getting a good horse, and the next thing trying to keep him sound,” Dickinson said.

His quest for soundness yielded a concoction called Tapeta, a mix of sand, polyethylene fibers, polypropylene fibers, recycled rubber and wax.

The science is complex — Dickinson and partners Joan Wakefield and Andrea Caraballo have tried 188 different formulas. But the concept is simple: Providing a surface that cushions, supports, absorbs shock and is uniform throughout its span may fend off aches, if not catastrophe.

“We are putting the Tapeta surface in at Fair Hill for multiple reasons,” said Dr. Kathleen Anderson, board director for the Fair Hill Condominium Association and owner of her own veterinary practice at the training center. “Number one is our attempt to always present the best possible training surface from a soundness and horse health point of view.”

Synthetic materials in general have flashed merit. Turf-way had three fatal breakdowns since the installation of Polytrack, compared to 24 in the same timespan before it.

“The evidence was pretty clear that [Turfway's surface] went a long way toward preventing catastrophic injury,” Moss said.

In addition to its success at Dickinson’s farm, Tapeta’s reputation is also expanding. Fair Hill-based trainer Michael Moran recently had it installed at his Unionville, Pa., farm, and has been impressed.

“It’s a beautiful surface,” Moran said. “It’s got a lot of bounce to it. I kept my young horses going all winter on it.”

Unproven surface deters some

Dickinson enlisted MIT professor Dr. George Pratt to test Tapeta’s mechanical properties, and the numbers suggest that the material is half as severe as dirt surfaces and less altered by repeated impact. It doesn’t retain water, which prevents the hazards of sloppy tracks.

Dickinson strives to harden that evidence, but the preliminary figures have encouraged horsemen.

“I think it’s a no-brainer that it’s got to be a kinder surface to the animals,” said trainer Graham Motion, based at Fair Hill and Delaware Park. “The hardest part of our game is dealing with [breakdowns].

“You can only imagine how attached we all get to these horses. So anything we can do to reduce the amount of breakdowns is fantastic.”

“I think it’s what the industry needs today,” said Steve Klesaris, second in Delaware’s trainer standings and also based at Fair Hill. “Horses today are not as durable as they were years ago; however, the tracks have not changed in 100 years. The time has come for that.”

There is some uncertainty to the synthetic switch. Polytrack has been imperfect in its infancy and racetrack managers are wary of investing in such young technology.

With previous synthetic installation costs estimated in the range of $5 million to $10 million, many tracks will take a cautious approach. Delaware Park chief operating officer Bill Fasy noted that the surface’s performance in a harsh environment will be an important factor in deciding whether it’s a viable option for the Stanton track.

“It depends on how successfully synthetic surfaces survive a couple years of duration and prove themselves in this kind of climate,” Fasy said. “If they do, obviously we would consider going in that direction.”

Dickinson concedes that signing on to synthetic is a hefty investment, but cites several ways in which Tapeta could become irresistible, starting with its safety for jockeys and horses.

“If there are two tracks and one has got it and the other hasn’t, I believe that most owners would go to the synthetic one,” Dickinson said. “Injuries hurt you in the pocket, but they hurt you mentally as well.”

The upside of synthetic

All-weather layouts have other perks, too — lower insurance, lighter maintenance, no need for watering, and hardiness in varied climates.

“Although it’s a lot of money to put [a track] down, it will be justified, it will be self-funding,” Dickinson said.

Of all the plusses, it’s the potential to ward off heartache that has the most allure.

Keith Chamblin, senior vice president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, sees synthetic surfaces as having that possibility.

“I think that the industry as a whole has been very vigilant over the past quarter-century in terms of addressing safety” Chamblin said. “This is another way of addressing safety and perhaps the most important way of addressing it in my time [working in the sport].”

While even the gentlest surfaces cannot block all injuries, the elimination of preventable catastrophes has promise.

“I think once it’s tweaked, over the next couple years, it’s going to be a very, very big bonus to the whole Thoroughbred industry,” Klesaris said.

Valley View Downs Developer Seeks Court Assistance

The developer of Valley View Downs is seeking court assistance in obtaining the state’s final harness track license.

Valley View’s parent company Centaur Inc. of Indiana filed papers with the state Supreme Court on Wednesday, the final day to appeal the June 19 ruling by the Commonwealth Court.

Valley View is competing with Lawrence County’s Bedford Downs for the final track license. The successful track applicant is in line to receive a license to operate 3,000 slot machines.

Last month, the Commonwealth Court upheld the state Harness Racing Commission’s rejection of Valley View’s license application. However, it ordered the commission to reconsider the application of Bedford Downs, which wants to develop a racetrack-casino complex in Mahoning Township.

Valley View wants to construct a multimillion-dollar facility in South Beaver Township, Beaver County.

In addition to asking that the commission be ordered to award it the license, Valley View argues that the Commonwealth Court erred in regard to its Bedford Downs ruling.

The harness commission also appealed the Commonwealth Court’s Bedford Downs ruling and is asking the state Supreme Court not to force it to reconsider the application.

Centaur claims the harness commission changed the rules of application after Valley View filed, calling this an “abuse of administrative power” and said the commission “created a beauty contest” between applicants.

In a second filing, Valley View supports the commission’s rejection of the Bedford Downs application. This was done, attorneys claim, due to questions over financing and alleged organized crime ties between the late grandfather of developer Carmen Shick, Kenneth Shick and their sister Kendra Tabak, who are proposing the Lawrence County track and casino.

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Article from http://www.ncnewsonline.com

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