“HORSE RACING: Santa Anita's new surface gets an early thumb's up” plus 1 more

HORSE RACING: Santa Anita's new surface gets an early thumb's up

Posted: 21 Jan 2011 12:28 AM PST

We're a little more than one-fifth of the way through Santa Anita's winter-spring meet and the track's new main dirt surface is receiving positive reviews overall.

That's not to say there haven't been some rough patches, but a pair of experts on the subject are pleased with the results through the first 17 days of the 76-day meet.

"I think the track's OK," said Dr. Rick Arthur, equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board. "I would like to see it a little slower than it is. Just in my observation, they tried to put this track in too quickly. We had record rains in December and they haven't had an opportunity to really learn how to maintain the race track.

"Every race track is different. We saw the same things with synthetics. I think they're going to learn how to do it, and I think this track is going to get better."

For the record, there had been two racing fatalities at Santa Anita through Monday, one in the afternoon and one during training.

There were nine horses vanned off through Sunday, none since Jan. 6, and at least one of the horses suffered a career-ending injury.

But Arthur cautioned horses in California are vanned off purely for precautionary reasons.

"Our philosophy is if there's any question at all, put the horse in the ambulance and take him home," he said. "We've actually gotten into some conflicts with some trainers over that very issue. They don't like to see their horse in an ambulance.

They take it personal.

"The numbers that we track, and I'm talking about the (California) Horse Racing Board, actually look pretty good. If they hold, they're definitely going to be better than the dirt track (at Santa Anita) before."

Santa Anita track superintendent Richard Tedesco added about 300 tons of sand to the track Tuesday morning after training and said he'll continue to add more as the meet progresses to try to slow it down after about 151/4 inches of rain in late December and early January caused the racing materials at the top of the surface to separate.

Three track records have been broken, including Spectacular Bid's seven- furlong time of 1:20 that had stood for 30 years. The Factor, a talented Kentucky Derby hopeful from the Bob Baffert barn, broke the six-furlong record when he sped to an 81/4-length victory while breaking his maiden in a scorching 1:06.98 on Opening Day.

"If I was to put the amount of sand that it really needs all at once, we would have tendons and suspensory (injuries) because it would be such a change that the horses wouldn't be able to get a hold of it," Tedesco said. "But little by little, we'll get what we need on it and it probably won't even be noticeable to the horses."

Tedesco said he's heard only positive feedback from horsemen.

"They all seem to like it," he said. "I'm not getting any real bad feedback on it and we're not picking up horses, and that's a good sign.

"The honeymoon's not over. I mean, it could happen and probably will down the line, but if I can maintain (the track) and keep it the way I've got it right now, I think things will be OK all the way through."

Arthur said the majority of trainers he has talked with are keeping an open mind.

"Don't forget, and we've certainly looked at this before, that any time you get a new surface there's always a rash of injuries in the first few weeks," he said. "It's a different surface, this is a different surface than our horses have seen for quite some time."

The subject of traditional dirt tracks compared to synthetic surfaces has been a lightning rod in the industry since the CHRB mandated artificial tracks in 2007.

"It gets very difficult to get a rational, dispassionate conversation," Arthur said. "The analogy I use, you might as well be talking about abortion or gun control. You either love 'em or hate 'em, and it's very difficult to have a disinterested conversation about them."

One factor that concerns Arthur is that one Southland track has returned to dirt while the other two, Hollywood Park and Del Mar, continue to use synthetics.

"I don't think that's good, particularly since they're going to be so different," he said. "That's going to be a real problem. It's going to be interesting to see how well (horses) handle it, and I hope I'm wrong. I hope it's a non-issue, but it's something I'm certainly concerned with."

For his part, Tedesco argues that injuries are an unfortunate part of the game that will never change.

"You gotta remember, these horses are athletes, and athletes do get hurt," he said. "As long as we're not putting them out of business and putting them down, we're doing what we're trying to achieve.

"There isn't a track in the country that can say they're injury-free. It's never going to happen."

Santa Anita is catching a break in the weather for at least the next 10 days. There is no rain in the forecast, which will enable Tedesco and his crew to continue to work on the track and hopefully eliminate the imperfections.

"What I'm trying to achieve is the good horses are going to run fast and the cheaper horses will run where they should be and not in the fast lane like the others," he said.

SANTA ANITA LEADERS

Through Thursday

JOCKEYS - WINS

Rafael Bejarano - 27

Joel Rosario - 22

Patrick Valenzuela - 18

Joe Talamo - 13

Martin Pedroza - 12

TRAINERS - WINS

Bob Baffert - 18

Doug O'Neill - 13

Jerry Hollendorfer - 6

Mike Mitchell - 6

John Sadler - 6

WEEKEND STAKES SCHEDULE

SANTA ANITA

Saturday: $150,000 Grade II Palos Verdes Stakes, 4-year-olds and up, 6 furlongs

FAIR GROUNDS

Saturday: $100,000 Grade III Lecomte Stakes, 3-year-olds, about 1 1/16 miles

DOWN THE STRETCH

The talented Smiling Tiger, coming off a nose loss to Twirling Candy in the opening-day Malibu Stakes and a third-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6, heads a field of seven for Saturday's $150,000 Grade II Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita. The six-furlong sprint over the main track will be Smiling Tiger's 12 th start, and he'll be ridden by Russell Baze. With a 5-1-5 record in his career for earnings of $767,864, the 4-year-old colt won the Bing Crosby at Del Mar and the Ancient Title Stakes during the Oak Tree at Hollywood Park meet before his big run in the Breeders' Cup. The Bob Baffert-trained Ventana, sidelined since finishing fourth in the Grade II Churchill Downs Stakes on May 1, will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano and is the only other graded-stakes winner entered. The 5-year-old won the Grade II Potrero Grande Stakes at Santa Anita last April after runner-up efforts in the Grade II San Carlos and last season's running of the Palos Verdes.

Jerry Antonucci, former handicapper and turf writer for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, Herald Examiner and Orange County Register during a career that spanned 37 years, will be honored by Santa Anita on Saturday following the fifth race. The $12,500 claiming event has been named "The Jerry Antonucci Purse." Antonucci, 64, retired last year after surgery to remove a brain tumor and is in good health as he prepares to enjoy retirement with his wife, Bonnie. He said the part of his job he might miss the most is hosting Today's Racing Digest seminars every Saturday morning. "My biggest thrill was to have an opinion about a horse I really thought would win," Antonucci said. "The phrase I would commonly use was, 'If this horse doesn't win, my family won't eat this week' ... and when I used that phrase, the horse won about 80 percent of the time."

Penny Chenery, owner of the great Secretariat, announced the creation of the Vox Populi Award ("Voice of the People") this week and revealed the inaugural recipient will be 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta. The award will be given annually to horses that capture the public's imagination. Chenery will present the custom-made Vox Populi trophy to Zenyatta's owners, Jerry and Ann Moss, in a public ceremony Feb. 5 at Santa Anita. Although Chenery selected this year's winner, plans call for a committee of racing personalities and industry representatives to choose the winner each year in conjunction with a national online vote. "The award is sure to be an honor that reflects the heart and soul of this sport and will help build upon the devotion the public has for a horse they love," Chenery said in a statement.

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Red Horse hopes changes lead to big things in '11

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 12:43 PM PST

Red Horse Racing has had some success since owners Tom DeLoach and Jeff Hammond entered the Camping World Truck Series in 2005, but with a pair of almost fully sponsored Toyotas in a completely reorganized stable for 2011, the best might be right around the corner.

"2011 is already starting off better than probably any season I've had in the last two or three years," DeLoach said. "We've made a lot of changes in personnel, and the attitude in the shop is probably the best I've ever seen it. The guys are energized -- pumped-up. We've had our speeches and we're committed."

Timothy Peters and Miguel Paludo

DeLoach has put crew chief Butch Hylton together with defending Daytona season-opener winner Timothy Peters and added a second truck, fully-sponsored by Stemco/Duroline, in the No. 2 position, for Brazilian rookie Miguel Paludo.

Paludo made his first four starts in the series in 2010 -- two of them with Red Horse -- and scored a top-10 finish in his series debut, at Bristol, of all places. He worked with veteran crew chief Rick Gay, who was Red Horse's competition director last year. But Gay wanted to get back on the pit box as a crew chief and that opened the door for six-time Truck Series race winner Terry Cook to join Red Horse as competition director.

"I'm really looking forward to getting back to the crew chief role," Gay said. "I learned a lot last year that I think will only make me a better crew chief this season. The changes Red Horse Racing has made during this offseason have us all really excited for 2011."

The best thing, both Gay and DeLoach agreed, is the synergy between the two veteran chief mechanics.

"Butch Hylton and I are getting along great and the communication we have with each other will help make both trucks even better next year," Gay said. "Miguel has shown a great amount of talent and potential so far, and I can't wait to see what we can do together."

DeLoach's team won in its inaugural season with rookie driver Brandon Whitt, won in its second year with veteran David Starr and has won a race in each of the past two seasons, with Peters winning at his home track, Martinsville Speedway and then scoring a stunning, last-lap Daytona triumph over eventual series champion and two-time Daytona winner Todd Bodine.

DeLoach thinks the biggest barrier to success -- funding -- has been solved. DeLoach has virtually all of Peters' season covered via sponsorship from the Apex Tool Group and its Crescent Tools brand, along with K&N Filters and continues with discussions to cover the last few races, which is much better than 2010, when more than half the season was unsponsored.

"There are plenty of drivers out there," DeLoach said. "The funding is the issue, and paying for it all."

DeLoach called Peters' 2010 season, which included two poles, five top-five and 16 top-10 finishes "frustrating," because, after winning at Daytona, the second victory never came. And never did a challenge to Bodine's second career championship.

"In the end we made quite a few changes and we think we've re-stacked it in a way that addresses some of the issues we thought we had, and it'll get stronger, going forward," DeLoach said. "The exciting thing to me, right now is with Butch Hylton joining us -- Butch and Rick Gay are spending a lot of time [together].

"It looks like they're connected and everything is discussed -- every little piece. They're really working together and they have each other's back, and I haven't seen that before and it's really refreshing after working on that for a number of years, to finally have it beginning to happen."

The effective chemical balance began with the driver and crew chief, the owner said.

"Butch and Timothy have clicked very nicely," DeLoach said. "Timothy respects Butch for background he brings to the table and Butch respects Timothy for what he's done so far in his racing career, but made it very clear to me that he had a Cup championship ring and a Nationwide championship ring and he wanted a Truck championship ring.

"I told him we could agree on that part."

DeLoach said he and Cook began talking about getting together last season and it took until the off-season to make it happen. DeLoach praised Cook's "people skills" saying, "Terry Cook is a big piece of trying to put all the ingredients together to work for us, and I'm pretty excited about that.

"Terry's done everything from running his own cars to being involved with setting up the original ThorSport Racing team. He's made 297 starts in the Truck Series so he brings a wealth of background. He's had a lot of relationships with sponsors, so he understands that side of it."

Cook and owner both feel they'll get an eyeful this season with Paludo, the Brazilian who qualified eighth at Texas in his Red Horse debut but crashed and finished 33rd. He impressed his owner when "he manned-up and said, 'don't you change a thing with what you're doing -- that was my fault,'" DeLoach said. "And I'll be darned if he didn't go to Homestead and, once he figured that place out, which is not an easy thing to do, finished in the top 10.

"So we're pretty pumped about Miguel being here and Rick's excited about doing whatever we can do to get him to be the rookie of the year."

Paludo won the Brazilian Porsche GT3 Cup two consecutive seasons, in 2008 and 2009, including winning 10 races the second season.

"He's a rookie in the Truck Series, but by no means is he a rookie in the seat," DeLoach said. "I think you're really going to see a competent driver, in Miguel, show up and we saw his patience, and ability at Homestead."

Red Horse ran a third truck at Daytona last season but didn't have the funding to continue it. DeLoach says he's not compelled to run the third team if it can't significantly help the other two and not be a drain on the organization -- and his informal deadline to do a third program has already passed.

"I've gotten to the position where we're saying, 'wait,'" DeLoach said. "If a third team comes in, it's got to be fully-funded because we're not going to run someone out of the Red Horse checkbook. If it happens, it will be for a good reason and if it doesn't, that's OK."

"Red Horse Racing goes to the track to win races and to win championships. And I have a real hard time believing we're fulfilling that objective if we just do a partial schedule, because we can't get the right people to be the crew on that if you have to say 'hey, come do a couple races and then come back later,' because I can't afford to cover them in all the down-time.

"So a partial schedule does not appeal to me. Having a truck with a couple drivers is still doable because you could put together a competitive team. But I have a hard time believing you could truly be competitive running a part-time schedule."

DeLoach didn't rule out doing a third truck later in the season, however.

"If we don't do a full year, the only way we'd look at doing a third truck is near the end of the year," DeLoach said, "when we'd do a few races to tee up for the following year."

Horse Racing

Friday, January 21, 2011