DEL MAR DIRT TIME!

Now that Del Mar’s management has decided to return to a main track made of dirt, and before the era of synthetic surfaces in Southern California is buried once and for all beneath a mound of chopped tires, sticky wax, and carpet fibers, it might help to take one last glance in the rearview mirror just to make sure the sport never goes through the same ordeal again.

So, Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to May 25, 2006, and the meeting of the California Horse Racing Board at Hollywood Park, where board chairman Richard Shapiro is about to call for a vote on a proposal to require any track that operates four continuous weeks of racing to install an “artificial polymer-type surface” before Jan. 1, 2008.

The proposal was inspired by an increase in fatal racing and training injuries over the state’s most recent seasons, particularly at Del Mar and Golden Gate Fields. Nothing could explain away the carnage. There were no easy answers. But in Kentucky, the long meet at Turfway Park over its new synthetic surface had experienced a dramatic decrease in equine deaths. The connection was made: It had to be the surface.

Read the full story by Jay Hovdey at Daily Racing Form at  http://www.drf.com/news/jay-hovdey-del-mar-quest-find-good-dirt