Santa Anita Track to Undergo Another Renovation

Arcadians may begin to notice in mid-July that heavy equipment, rather than horses going through their normal morning workouts, will be on the main track at .

Santa Anita officials told the California Horse Racing Board at a meeting at Hollywood Park in Inglewood Thursday that the much-troubled Arcadia track will be closed for 10 to 14 days for another renovation.

The work is scheduled to begin July 11.

Santa Anita President George Haines told the CHRB that around 7,500 tons of clay will be removed and replaced by sand.

Santa Anita Still in Contention for 2012 Breeders' Cup

Greg Avioli--former Breeders’ Cup president who recently became the CEO of Santa Anita owner Frank Stronach’s racing division--said, “We take this issue very seriously. We’re determined to get this right.”

A relatively safe track that is well-received within the horse racing industry could go a long way in helping Santa Anita land the 2012 Breeders’ Cup, which would be a boon to the local economy.

The cost of the renovation is estimated at $300,000.

Why Another Renovation?

The current traditional dirt track was installed last fall at a cost of $3.8 million. It replaced a synthetic track that was first installed in 2007 at an initial cost of $10 million and went through a number of costly renovations.

During the course of the project, the inner training track will be available to horsemen from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m., seven days a week, according to track officials. Del Mar officials had expressed concern to the CHRB Thursday that the Santa Anita renovation could mean fewer horses would be available to run in their summer meet, which begins July 20.

The next racing at Santa Anita is scheduled for late September, when the inaugural will be held in place of the traditional Oak Tree meet.



Much of the problems with the current Santa Anita track have been blamed on the unusually heavy winter rainfall.

“We started off with a great track, but unfortunately that track changed for whatever reason,” Haines told the CHRB. “There are bunch of different theories, but we do know that the composition of the track has way too much clay in it and the way to solve that problem is to dilute that clay with clean sand material.

During the recent winter-spring meet, 11 horses broke down in races and six more during morning workouts. There were only a total of six breakdowns the previous winter-spring meet on the synthetic surface.

Synthetic tracks essentially consist of a gummy binder mixed in with sand and rubber chips and other material. A CHRB mandate required that California's five major thoroughbred racetracks convert from dirt to synthetic surfaces in 2007.

Whether the synthetic surface was actually safer or not became a hotly debated topic and the CHRB rescinded that mandate last summer, enabling Santa Anita to go back to dirt. But that didn’t alleviate all the problems. And now here we have yet another renovation.

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect new information regarding the training schedule during the renovation.