Turf Paradise, Horsemen at Odds on Track Safety

Last week an Arizona horsemen's group warned its members about the safety of track conditions at Turf Paradise following a recent increase in injuries and breakdowns. During an Arizona Racing Commission meeting April 19, track general manager Vince Francia outlined the actions being taken to improve both dirt and turf surfaces, while one trainer pushed back and said what's being done is not enough.

"What was done on Saturday (April 17) … on the main track we put on 350 tons of number 10 mesh sand that gives bounce and puts life back into the dirt. It also breaks down clay from bonding, which is what causes most of the problems on a racetrack like Turf Paradise," Francia said. "We have been off the turf for some time and will be back on Thursday. What we are doing is rolling it, seeding it. We will be aerating it on Tuesday, which allows the turf course to breathe. That will take us through the rest of the meet."

Last week, Francia posted on an Arizona horse racing Facebook page that an increase in injuries toward the end of a meet is not unusual.

"Every race meet, near the end of the meet like we are now, we experience a rash of breakdowns. We've never been able to determine with certainty why that is. Is it the track? Are some horses over-raced and tired? Is it something we're missing?" he wrote, asking horsemen to more closely inspect the horses in their care.

"I haven't had time to review the PPs of these recent fatalities. I will do so beginning tomorrow morning," Francia wrote April 14. "The point is, the solutions to taking corrective action begin with the fact that you have horses that race over a track, and you have a track that horses race over. Sounds simplistic but that's where the corrective measures begin. You start with what's in front of you."

Trainer Ryan Bratcher told racing commissioners Monday that he believes Francia needs to be more aggressive in fixing the racing surfaces and not blame horsemen.

"I think it is a blatant disrespect to the horsemen with how the track, the dirt and turf surface, have been managed this year," said Bratcher, who said he's been a horseman his whole life and that his grandfather once trained at Turf Paradise. "The issue with the dirt not being uniform and consistent has been an issue before. I think 350 tons of sand is not enough; it's not even close. Arizona Downs just told us it is adding 3,000 tons of sand.

"I just left Del Mar and Santa Anita, and I feel like we need to implement some of their actions. What we are seeing is with young Quarter Horses, older Quarter Horses, it is with route horses and horses that are sprinting. It is horses that have run four races and those that have run 50 races, so it's multiple horses and multiple trainers. It's not the horsemen, it is the track," Bratcher said.

Francia did not respond after Bratcher spoke but did say during his earlier comments that he had been working closely with horsemen on the improvements and appreciated their working with him "every step of the way."

With improvements, Francia said he intends to ask for a longer meet at Turf Paradise for the 2021-22 racing seasons that would stretch 106 days from Breeders' Cup World Championships weekend to the Kentucky Derby weekend of 2022.

"Looking toward the next meet, we will at the May (commission) meeting put in a request for a three-year permit that will begin Nov. 5, the start of Breeders' Cup, through May 7," he said. "What we have found is that abbreviated meets—ones that are not quite as long as 130—are beneficial to us and to the horsemen. This year we have averaged $110,000 in purses per day and that has never, ever happened at Turf Paradise."