IT'S TIME FOR DIRT SURFACE AT DEL MAR

Call it the approximate seven-year itch. In 2014—seven years after Arlington Park, Del Mar, Presque Isle Downs, Santa Anita Park, Hollywood Park, and Golden Gate Fields joined Keeneland (2006), Woodbine (2006), and Turfway Park (2005) in unveiling synthetic racing surfaces that were advertised as a panacea for horse racing—half of those facilities have returned or have announced returns to dirt surfaces, leaving Arlington, Woodbine, Presque Isle, Turfway, and Golden Gate as the only North American racetracks that will run on synthetics by 2015.

Timeline:

1965
April - Tartan Track tested with six Thoroughbred trial races at Laurel Raceway, a harness track

1966
Nov. - First race on Tropical Park’s Tartan surface

1971
May - Calder Race Course opens with a main track consisting of synthetic Saf-T-Turf
Sept. - Calder covers Saf-T-Turf with sand; special harrow built to keep a two-inch consistency

1987
Martin Collins’ first Polytrack training facility installed at trainer Richard Hannon’s gallop in England

1988
Aug-. - Equitrack, a mixture of sand and oil-based polymers, installed at Remington Park

1989
Oct. - Lingfield Park in England opens with Equitrack surface; Southwell in England opens with Fibresand

1991
July - Remington Park announces Equitrack will be replaced by conventional racing surface

1998
March - Trainer Michael Dickinson lays down his Tapeta surface at his training farm in North East, Md.

2001
Nov. - Lingfield Park resurfaced with Polytrack

2002
Jan. - Newmarket opens Polytrack gallop at Long Hill

2003
March - Polytrack gallop installed at Ballydoyle in Ireland; training tracks installed for France Galop at Chantilly and Maisons-Laffitte

2004
Sept. - Keeneland unveils its Polytrack training track

2005
Sept. - Turfway Park opens fall meet with its new Polytrack surface

2006
Feb. - The California Horse Racing Board decides that state racing associations that operate at least four continuous weeks will be required to install a synthetic racing surface by the end of 2007 or face a loss of dates
May - The CHRB gives final approval that all major Thoroughbred tracks in the state must install synthetic surfaces by Jan. 1, 2008
Aug. - Midway through its meeting, Woodbine becomes the second track in North America to race on a synthetic surface, unveiling its new Polytrack surface; while being installed, main track races were run on the harness track (Read More)
Oct. - Keeneland opens its fall meet with its new Polytrack surface; Great Hunter wins first grade I race on a synthetic surface, the Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity, the following day (Read More)
Nov. - Hollywood Park opens with its new Cushion Track synthetic surface (Read More)

2007
May - Arlington Park opens with a new Polytrack surface a year after an unprecedented string of catastrophic breakdowns
July - 42,842 are on hand at Del Mar as the Southern California track opens with its new Polytrack surface (
Sept. - Presque Isle opens for business in northwest Pennsylvania with a Tapeta Footings surface
Oct. - The Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita opens, unveiling its new Cushion Track surface
Nov. - Golden Gate Fields in Northern California opens with its new Tapeta Footings racing surface
Nov. - The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. opens its one-mile training track with its new synthetic Safetrack surface

2008
June - Pro-Ride surface installed at Santa Anita after Cushion Track fails to adequately drain

2010
March - Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) moves from dirt at Nad al Sheba to Tapeta Footings surface at Meydan Racecourse

Dec. - Santa Anita moves back to a dirt surface

2013
Dec. - Hollywood Park closes

2014
April - Keeneland and Del Mar announce they are pulling out their Polytrack surfaces and installing dirt surfaces. Both are named Breeders’ Cup host sites shortly thereafter.


May - Decision is made to change Meydan to a dirt surface in time for 2015 World Cup