Tapeta

June was the warmest month on record-the twelfth consecutive month of record global temperatures. Climate change is hitting all walks of life. Horse racing, too. Last year, unusually hot temperatures coupled with unusually little rain fueled huge wildfires in Canada, impacting air quality and causing the cancellation of racing and training in both Canada and New York. Just last month, New Mexico's Ruidoso Downs narrowly avoided a wildfire that tore through the area. The track hasn't been so lucky in the aftermath, thanks to frequent flash flooding leading to the...

Having saddled more than 500 winners on synthetic surfaces in his multiple graded stakes-winning career, Kevin Attard said his interest was piqued last week when the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) said in a release it would be utilizing an all-weather Tapeta track as its exclusive winter racing surface at the new Belmont Park when it opens in 2026. "It's definitely something I've contemplated for a bit now. The fact that a synthetic track is going in there is a little bit more enticing for myself and I'm sure...

The one-mile Tapeta track currently under construction at Belmont Park will become the exclusive winter racing surface on the New York Racing Association circuit when the Long Island facility reopens in 2026, NYRA announced Monday. The change will result in approximately three months of racing exclusively on an all-weather surface with the shift from dirt to the all-weather in the winter months expected to enhance equine safety and provide additional opportunities for the circuit's year-round horse population for the benefit of the state's Thoroughbred racing ecosystem. "At its core, our...

Edited Press Release Santa Anita Park has opened its all-new synthetic Tapeta inner training track manufactured by Maryland-based Tapeta Footings, Inc., effective Saturday morning. Following the Breeders' Cup, the 'Great Race Place' embarked upon an $8 million project to provide horsemen with a state-of-the-art all-weather surface that will complement its one-mile natural dirt main track and serve as a safe and viable component in the conditioning of Thoroughbreds on a year 'round basis. "At Tapeta, our aim is to maintain the surface so that we have a soft cushion below and...

The New York Racing Association has announced the formation of an All-Weather Surfaces Committee to study the impact of various racing surfaces on equine injury rates. According to a Wednesday NYRA press release, the committee, which first met last October, will evaluate safety metrics from tracks utilizing all-weather racing surfaces, as well as study the feasibility of broader adoption of all-weather surfaces nationally. The committee, chaired by NYRA CEO and President David O'Rourke, was formed at the request of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, as part of HISA's strategic...

Woodbine Racetrack isn't done with the graded entertainment as the GIII Seaway S. for 3-year-old fillies and mares going seven furlongs takes to the Tapeta on Sunday. Drawn to the outside is the last out winner of the GIII Trillium S. July 23 in Toronto, Il Malocchio (Souper Speedy). Cutting back, the Martin Drexler trainee is the morning-line favorite at 5-2. The 5-year-old will face eight others, including Catherine Day-Phillips trainee Millie Girl (Hard Spun), who finished third in the June 3 GII Royal North S. and in the same...

Does dirt form transfer over to synthetic tracks and vice versa? And do the progeny of traditional Kentucky-based dirt stallions run, for the most part, just as well on synthetic as they do on dirt? These are some of the many questions being asked after a rash of breakdowns over the last few months has led some to call for synthetic tracks, which, statistics show, are safer than dirt and turf courses, to replace dirt tracks. While one horse and one race is not much of a sample size, the...

In the wake of a tragic stretch of breakdowns at Saratoga, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to advocate for a switch to synthetic, a surface which he considers far safer and easier on horses than dirt, and admit that he is not as proud to represent this industry as he once was.

Appearing as the Green Group Guest of the Week on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse grew emotional when the subject of the rash of fatalities that have plagued the sport this year came up. Believing that the industry has not done all that it can to help alleviate the situation and that tracks must embrace a return to synthetic surfaces, Casse admitted that his outlook on his profession and the sport has changed for the worse. "This is sad to...

When it comes to breakdowns, the Tapeta surface at Woodbine isn't perfect. But it might be as close to perfect as any surface on the continent. While horses throughout North America broke down on the dirt at a rate of 1.44 per 1,000 starts in 2022, the rate of breakdowns over the synthetic surface at Woodbine was 0.42. This year, after about 4,500 starts over Tapeta there have been only two fatalities during races. Also, there have been about 14,000 published workouts over Woodbine's synthetic tracks and only two fatalities...

Mark Casse may have made more starts over dirt and synthetic surfaces combined than any other trainer in history-over 5,000 starts on synthetic and 5,000 on dirt in the past 15 years alone. He estimates that he has sent horses out to gallop, breeze, or race over a synthetic surface 150,000 times in the past 10 years.  With a base at Woodbine, where they race and train over a Tapeta surface which sports one of the lowest instances of catastrophic injuries in North America, Casse offered to sit down with...

After reading the various commentaries over recent days by Ambassador Mack and Bill Finley and the Letters to the TDN Editor on the synthetics debate, I heard Bill say during this week's TDN Writer's Room that we could reduce fatalities by the hundreds with a surface shift. A close analysis shows the numbers are much greater than that. First a step back. The industry needs a revamp in the way we present this discussion to the public at large and those opponents who would have our "social license" go the...