Every CME (Commercial Market Evaluation) that I do nowadays on a stallion prospect has to factor in the horse’s race record and perceived sire ability on synthetic surfaces.
Simply put, the American racing market now requires racehorses to perform not only on dirt and turf, but also on synthetic surfaces. This year’s Breeders’ Cup “dirt” races, for instance, were held for the first time on the synthetic Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita, and they will be again in 2009. There are nine synthetic-surfaced racetracks now in the US, there are others in Europe, and others being built around the world, including the training track at the Meydan racecourse in Dubai.
At this point in time, everyone knows that dirt and turf form are different from synthetic form, but why these differences exist requires subtle analysis. A friend of mine, the international bloodstock writer and expert Sid Fernando – the former Bloodstock Editor of Daily Racing Form and also an accomplished youth baseball manager – explained some of the subtleties of synthetics to me recently by way of a baseball analogy that I think puts this into clearer perspective.
Sid noted that many college and youth baseball programs are building new fields with “field turf,” an artificial surface that in many ways is a game-changing parallel to the synthetic surfaces replacing conventional dirt tracks. This new baseball surface, for instance, requires that infielders play deeper than on traditional grass fields, because uniformly the batted ball travels faster over it, and it would be difficult to field the ball otherwise.
On a traditional grass baseball field, in contrast, the thickness of the grass would dictate how fast the ball travels, and usually the grass slows the ball down considerably. On the new “synthetic” fields, Sid said, infielders, especially shortstops, now need stronger arms to play the position from a deeper point, and arm strength is paramount to throw out the runner, because the runner also can get down the line to first base quicker on this faster ground. Conversely, a shortstop with an average arm is now at a distinct disadvantage. The point here, then, is that the surface has created new criteria – a strong arm, for example – for success.
Similarly, racetrack synthetics — Polytracks, Pro-Rides, Cushion tracks, Tapetas, etc. – are changing the profile of the American racehorse. To succeed at the middle distances on a synthetic surface, especially, now requires a horse to have sustainable late acceleration like that witnessed by both Raven’s Pass and Henrythenavigator, first and second, respectively, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Most recently, we saw the Empire Maker colt Pioneer of the Nile make a long, sustained run to win the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood park.