A major change coming to Santa Anita Park this winter is the transformation of its infield training track.
As part of a larger $32 million improvement plan for Santa Anita announced this summer, Santa Anita’s training track is changing from a sand-based surface to all-weather synthetic produced by Tapeta Footings. The surface change is designed to improve safety while also helping to limit weather-related training disruptions.
“The main thing is having synthetic will alleviate a complete stoppage of training because of weather,” said Jason Egan, Santa Anita director of racing and racing secretary.
This week has provided a perfect example of the potential impact of a synthetic training track at Santa Anita. With back-to-back rainstorms hitting the area, the main track was “sealed” on Dec. 19 and has since been closed entirely for training.
“We have some unique situations in California with rules as it relates to weather,” Egan said. “Like with the rain this week. It either closes our racetrack entirely or limits what our training activities can be.
“Having a synthetic training track, we can continue on with workouts, gallops, that sort of thing. I think it will be a big assist.”
Santa Anita’s training track has been closed for construction since Nov. 12. Prior to this week’s rainstorms, its conversion to synthetic had been ahead of schedule, track officials said. As things stand, the training track remains on course to reopen in mid-January.
This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
