Page 5 - December 2006 The Game
P. 5

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper The Game, December 2006 5
Poly-Troubles at Woodbine
Woodbine as an example to sell his invention to subsequent racetracks. A serious complaint of this nature is sure to
get his attention.
Attfield was one of about 100 horsemen
who attended this meeting and he was encouraged by the track’s response.
“We’re all in a learning curve on this,” he said, “It was a successful meeting. Management changed some things and the track’s been great ever since. From what I can gather it comes down to the amount of wax that is in the surface. It’s the same story we’ve always had here. We try to race on the same surface for three seasons.”
One thing that did get resolved at the meeting on that Friday was the issue of toe grabs. Many of the trainers in attendance argued that toe grabs would not damage the surface and this opinion carried the day.
“We talked about the issue of toe grabs,” says Martin, “For the remainder of the meet they are allowed. Some of the
trainers thought strongly that it should be allowed and we know it wasn’t jeopardizing the surface.”
Attfield remains a strong proponent for the surface.
“We understand that management is learning about this too,” he says, “Even with these problems, this is a much better surface than we had before.”
For the present, Woodbine has two immediate objectives, says Martin.
“We want to get through the meet without issues and when we have more time if we want to do any reconditioning, we can do that in the spring before we open.”
Artificial racing surfaces have never been installed in an environment with as many weather extremes as Southern Ontario has to offer. The last several days of racing at Woodbine, inevitably, will challenge the surface on those nights when the temperature scoots several degrees below the freezing point.
For a while it seemed the new Polytrack surface at Woodbine had an Emperor’s New Clothes aura around it. There were whispers of problems, but few brave souls actually wanted to step forward and say emphatically, “There’s something wrong with this surface!”
Still, the grumblings were evident and track management knew it. On Friday, November 10, Woodbine executives Tom Cosgrove (Director of Racing) and Jamie Martin (VP of Racing) met with trainers in the backstretch for an explicit discussion about the Polytrack.
“We’re not happy with it,” says Martin, bluntly, “We were all pretty happy with it in September and October because it performed as we expected, but as the cool weather came on, it changed. Everybody can see that. We paid a lot of money for this surface and we’ve gone to our supplier, Martin Collins in Keeneland and told them we’re not happy. They’ve been here this week to look at it.”
The obvious problem has been the kick- back, the cloud of beige material that, on some days, has been much more obvious than others; one of the more appealing assurances in the sales brochure of Polytrack was that
there would be virtuall no kick- back, affording trailing horses a fairer and less intimidating trip. During the first week of November, the kickback coming from the leading
blend of silica sand, rubber particles and carpet fibres. The fibres, ideally, work their way amongst the other materials and hold everything together, much like grass roots hold a clump of turf together. But recently, the fibres have separated and by sitting on top of the racing surface, get churned up and ejected backwards by the motion of the horses’ hooves. Martin believes this is an addressable problem.
“We’re taking some of it out,” he says, “We’ve been doing that the last couple of days.”
That conjured up the image of a hundred members of the Worm Pickers Union of Ontario marching slowly down the track in the dead of the night, little headlamps illuminating the track as they meticulously picked out the fibres. Well, it’s not quite like that.
“It’s fairly easy,” says Martin, “ You can get a machine like a hay rake that will pick it up or we can grade it off the top.”
Even with these challenging circumstances, Woodbine still has a very powerful ace up its sleeve. Because the Canadian track is one of the first in North America to employ this specific surface, Martin Collins wants very much to use
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horses was easy to see and it appeared that horses in mid-pack were running in waves of Polytrack substance.
“The kickback was considerable,” says veteran trainer Roger Attfield, “The jockeys said it was quite crazy and they were getting a lot of it in their faces.”
So what was being fired back at the riders and horses from the hooves in front of them?
“That is mostly the carpet fibre that is in the track,” informs Martin.
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