I’m here at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion at the all-day forum on synthetic surfaces. The first two panels were track execs and vets; the first was informative, interesting, and at times lively; the second less so, which disappointed me, as vets are the ones who can go beyond anecdotal information to provide real data about the effects of the surfaces on horses and humans.
I was tempted to live blog the proceedings, but decided that that would be unutterably boring, so I’ll post a synthesized (pun intended!) report tonight/tomorrow morning.
This afternoon’s panels are trainers, jockeys, and researchers.
More later…you can check out Railbird’s Raceday 360 Twitter reports for occasional quotations…
About Teresa
A freelance turf writer, I'm the New York correspondent for Thoroughbred Times and the racing blogger for Forbes.com, and my work has appeared in The Saratogian, the Daily Racing Form, the Blood-Horse, Trainer magazine, and the Rail at the New York Times. I'm a member of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association, of the board of directors for the Belmont Child Care Association, and of the voting committee for the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
I teach high school English in Brooklyn, and I'm a Brooklyn dweller and former and erstwhile resident of Saratoga Springs, New York. When not teaching or writing, I'm watching the Rangers at the Garden, playing Scrabble, or rescuing cats.
Why would vets have data on surfaces?
-Clueless in Seattle
Thanks for doing the hard work for us, Alan. I knew about the forum, but instead did the usual off-day Saratoga chores, a little laundry, a little organizing the house, etc. And, of course, handicapping tomorrow.
MOre seriously, I had dinner with Jim Gallagher of the NY Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Ass’n, who also attended at least some of the forum. Jim said that he thought tyhe net effect would be to slow down the rush to synthetics while more data is accumulated.
Steve… did you mean Teresa? (you thanked Alan).