You may have noticed a giant white tent in the north parking lot at Santa Anita Park this week. That tent will be there to temporarily house the mixing equipment and supplies for the synthetic dirt that will be introduced on the training track (the inner most track) at the Park. The synthetic track is one of the key recommendations that resulted from the analysis
that was done after several horse fatalities at Santa Anita, mostly occurring before the pandemic. The synthetic dirt is supposed to be easier on the horse’s joints and will cause fewer injuries, so this will be a nice addition to the facilities there. The tent will be up until after the holidays, maybe until February, depending on how the weather affects their progress. Santa Anita is then planning to install another turf course in the north parking lot, where they will use the existing training track dirt as a base for the new turf course. After all of that, Santa Anita will be able to provide a greater variety of races that will help attract international horses and greater attention worldwide. It will also make it possible for the giant piles of dirt that have been in the north parking lot for the past few years to go away permanently from view. All of
this is good news for the future of horse racing in Arcadia.
