ANOTHER $500,000 SHOULD PUT SANTA ANITA ON RIGHT (TURF) COURSE
Horses kick up so much sand during a turf race at Santa Anita, it looks like they're running at Sahara Anita.
The course has come under criticism from trainers, jockeys and the media. For a track with Santa Anita's rich history, the whole experience has been a nightmare. The condition of the turf course likely did not make a favorable impression on the Breeders' Cup committee, which awarded the 1997 event to Hollywood Park
But take it from Santa Anita president Cliff Goodrich, the grass course will finally be greener and better by the time the Oak Tree meet rolls around in October. And this time, they are going to get it right. The first steps towards that goal have already been taken, and a half-a-million dollars and some five months later, the walk will have been completed. Goodrich, in candid fashion, elaborated:
"I think we at Santa Anita, as lay people, did a good job explaining to our consultants what we wanted (before $2.3 million was spent on a new course after April of last year); in the end, that's not what we got.
"In other words, we wanted a course that was less sandy, more soil-oriented, that would reasonably withstand rainy weather. If that meant we'd be off it for a few days, so be it. In order to get more stability, we didn't expect the perfect course. That hasn't happened.
"I think the growing medium did not turn out to be the right one. The grass, retrospective, is not strong enough, doesn't wear well. We're going to have a warm-season grass like a Bermuda.
"So the plan is this: we have about eight different test plots now up on the hill (by the start of the 6 1/2-furlong turf chute) that horsemen are looking at. We want to see what they like best.
"The good news is, it's like we built a new house and painted it. We don't have to tear down the house, but we need a new coat of paint. We're going to have to go down about four or five inches (into the existing course), add amendments to the soil, take out some soil, so that it clearly will be a more silt and clay-oriented course than it is now,
"When it rains, we will be off (the grass) for several days, but we're not going to see the sand problem that we've had. In addition to that, we will tear out the sod and replace it with Bermuda, that we will overseed with an annual rye. The previous course to this had Bermuda, and it had so many problems. We have since learned that overseeding with a perennial rye is toxic to the Bermuda. No one knew that at the time.
"We found out the hard way that the Bermuda just wouldn't thrive. We'll have a whole, new course by Oak Tree. 'Whole, new' defined is going down about five inches. It's about a $500,000 project, not the $2.3 million we spent last year. The foundation is good. We need a new growing medium, we need a new grass.
"Last time we had to re-engineer and re-design the whole course 17 inches down. We don't have to go through that. We are leaning on a number of consultants. We haven't dismissed the ones who helped us last year. We are taking their input, but also the input of others. We pretty damn-well know now what we need to do. For goodness sakes, we've done it enough times.
"We're also going to get the input of some jockeys and trainers, who put horses over that course. We put the sod down recently, and in a couple of weeks, it will be ready to gallop over. Before we move ahead, we're going to have their endorsement on this, too."
Goodrich did not feel the tormented turf course cost Santa Anita the 1997 Breeders' Cup.
"Oh, I think it was a factor," Goodrich admitted. "I don't know, because I'm not in the Breeders' Cup (people's) heads, but I'd say it was a factor in the equation. But I think the biggest reason is simply that it was Hollywood's turn. They haven't had it since 1987 and we had it three years ago.
"And what reason would you have to take it away from Hollywood Park, if, in fact, it was their turn? So I think that was the biggest factor. But I'd be shocked if 'turf course' didn't come up somewhere in the discussion."
Said racing secretary Tom Knust of the grass course: "It hasn't taken hold. We've been aware there are problems. We are coping with it as best we can for now, and are writing races for it, hopeful that the horsemen enter. It's up to them. We've done the best we could with what we've had. Some horses can handle it, some can't. The important thing is, it's safe."
Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel has been the most outspoken critic of the Arcadia grass course, despite winning with 12 of 26 grass runners. "But I don't know anything about turf courses," he said. "All I know is if they're good or bad. I don't know how to fix them."
Frankel's explanation for his success was simple: "I've got the best horses . . . so far, I've been lucky."
Now, it's Santa Anita's turn.
THE HOMESTRETCH: Triple Crown hopeful Alyrob is doing well after undergoing surgery for an entrapped epiglottis last Tuesday. An entrapped epiglottis is a
condition in which the thin membrane lying below the epiglottis moves up and covers the
epiglottis, impairing breathing. "It went really good," trainer Wally Dollase said of the
procedure. "Dr. Greg Ferraro performed it, and Alyrob will walk for 10 days, then go
back into training." Dollase, understandably, would not commit to Alyrob's Triple Crown
schedule at this early point."There's a possibility he could still make the Santa Anita
Derby (April 6), but I wouldn't want to say right now. There's the $200,000-guaranteed
Golden State Derby at Bay Meadows on March 23, too, so we've got some other options .
. . Dr. Ferraro will scope the horse again, and then he'll determine where we are." Dollase
said Alyrob's breathing problem "probably happened in his last race (a fourth-place finish
to Prince of Thieves in the Santa Catalina Stakes on Feb. 4) and we didn't even know it.
His next workout after his last race is when we discovered it." Helmsman, meanwhile, a
troubled fourth as the mild 5-2 favorite in the Santa Anita Handicap, has been given a
brief break. "He displaced his soft palate during the race and we're sending him to the
(Emerald Meadows) farm. He'll get about a three-week vacation, then go back into
training and probably have one race before the Hollywood Gold Cup (June 30)." . . .
Irgun, 1994 Gotham and Wood Memorial winner who has been sidelined since with a
myriad of ailments, was up to seven furlongs in his workouts towards a comeback, when
he developed a cough. But trainer Steve Young expects Irgun to start before the meet
ends . . . Jockey Alex Solis, consistently among the leading riders on the Southern
California circuit, underwent a name change upon his arrival from Florida years ago,
thanks to his agent at that time, Vince DeGregory. "His real first name is Alexis,"
explains DeGregory, "and he when he came to California, everybody thought he was a
girl. I told him to change his name to Alex." Solis and Gary Stevens will be in Dubai for
the World Cup Classic on March 27, to ride Dare and Go and Soul of the Matter,
respectively, for trainer Richard Mandella. Both horses are booked on a March 19 flight
to the United Arab Emirates at Nad Al Sheba race course, a 9,000-mile trip, one way. It
will be the first trip to Dubai for Mandella, who joked that he's "never been south of
Arkansas."
. . . As reported in Gaming Today of Jan. 27, Bobby Frankel did have a horse test
positive for a minute amount of a Class 1 prohibited drug, morphine. The California
Horse Racing Board, in a complaint issued Thursday, said the horse, Nimble Mind, a
$46,000 allowance winner on Jan. 3, tested positive for the drug. A hearing before the
Santa Anita stewards is set for April 3, but Frankel is expected to appeal any suspension.
He'll be represented by trainer Darrell Vienna . . . Daily Racing Form associate editor
Wayne Monroe lost 40 pounds without dieting. How? "I walk five miles a day," the
svelte one said.
The Running Horse (http://www.isd1.com/alauck)