Mar 5, 2004
By Liz Lundberg
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Sat, Mar 5 6:45 AM
Track Condition: "Miserable"
After three days of being closed (in order to work on the track through the entire morning..???), which were Tuesday , Wednesday, and Thursday. Wednesday is always closed. But, presuming they still "worked" it, the track should have been better. Well, that didn't happen, although I enjoyed a couple extra unstructured days, the result was yesterday's track condition and the subsequent cancellation of the races.
You can't really blame the jocks for waiting to cancel until 7 PM, because nobody could tell if the track would thaw out more or not. But in my mind, there is something going on with getting this surface maintained, because the last time they did this kind of work, the bottom was broken up and it was able to thaw out to a deeper level. I don't know if it was the weather or the instructions the maintenance crew got, but it really crapped somewhere along the line.
So here is my hope and my plea, both for our racetrack, the state of the racing industry, and, of course, my web site: That issues such as this provoke participation among and between the Backside (horsemen), The Front side (mgt.) the Independent Subcontract Labor (jockeys) and hopefully the General Public, and to the following effect: That we learn to communicate in a respectful fashion about these issues and accomplish something positive. Simple but perhaps not so easy, still, it's the only game worth playing. We've been playing at bull crap forever and it's a surprise to me that we haven't gotten bored and moved on yet. I hope this web site and forum helps. AND -- Please participate.
Now it's later, about 4 PM. (I'm re- editing this entire article cuz I'm having trouble with the formatting.) There was a meeting at 11:00 to determine if they would run or cancel. Naturally nobody can make it to the meeting. The track is still open for training. Everyone's still working, not least of all the Jocks. If the jocks leave, they'll piss off the trainers who expect them to remain there galloping horses till noon, when it's officially closed. (I'm glad I'm retired and that part of the job is behind me- it has zip to do with being a good jock.)
I have included photos here so you can see the contrast from yesterday to today. 
(can you see how much farther I can dig into the surface? And look, the clods are softer. They will break apart when the horses' feet land on them)
I'll explain it from my perspective:
At 7:30, the track had a much deeper cushion. If you look a the photo of my foot in the surface yesterday, and then today, you can see what a difference it is. At least another two inches. The "clods" are soft today and not the problem they were yesterday. I talked to one of the trainers and he said what happened this week was that the snow was left on the track to insulate it, but Wednesday night was so cold and windy that it blew the snow off and the track froze, so running the disks over it Thursday was like spitting in the wind.
There was speculation earlier about whether they would run, on account of the amount of water that is in the track surface. As you can see, what happens as the morning progresses is that the track thaws out and turns into a sea of mud. One rider said that the water will not be able to seep out fast enough, and it will be just like the night before, except deeper mud. If that were the case, they would cancel again. But after the (more than likely aborted for lack of participation) meeting, it was decided that a meeting would be held at 2:30. This is probably the best time to make a decision, for various reasons:
By 2:30 there is a much better indication of how bad the water situation is. The horsemen who are running that evening have not yet given their horse their doses of Lasix or other legal pre- race medication, the public has not already attended with the expectation of seeing ten live races, the people who do all the coordinating haven't had to come to work yet, and so on and so forth.
So they decided to run. That's good. Charles has no real hobbies, so when he's not working he gets so stir crazy he turns ornery on me, plus I have to watch TV if he's home, (if I want to sit in the living room).
You all can go to the races, and I'll stay home and play my fiddle. Well, I might come out for a couple. I'll take a look and see who's in that I know. An old buddy of mine shipped in to run in the Fourth. If you're reading this, look up the 4th at Mtnr., Trainer Tony Tamburino. Then silently wish Tony some luck. He's a hell of a nice guy!
