The material for a $7-million all-weather synthetic surface training track at Santa Anita Park will begin arriving Nov. 13.
The project is part of 1/ST Racing's announcement made during the summer, which closely followed its announced intended closure of Golden Gate Fields in Northern California, that the company will make significant financial investments in Southern California racing to enhance safety and wellness for horses.
The transformation of Santa Anita's traditional sand-based training track to a synthetic Tapeta surface is meant to improve the overall safety environment at Santa Anita while giving more options for uninterrupted training, especially during winter months, which can bring rainfall to the area.
The Tapeta surface is expected to be popular for training turf horses, as well as horses who have been racing on synthetic surfaces.
Officials hope it will allow for a real-world evaluation of the Tapeta surface in the Southern California environment that the year-round racing and training center experiences. Synthetic surfaces have a lower rate of equine fatalities during racing than turf and dirt tracks.
The material will begin arriving a week after the conclusion of Santa Anita's Autumn Meet. The material will be stored and mixed in the Colorado parking lot, just north of the track. The timeline for closing the training track to remove the sand material and install a base with drainage is targeted for late November. The project is expected to be completed in mid-January.
