Mick Peterson would like to see more tracks document information on their racing surfaces and coordinate that information with data from the Equine Injury Database to improve safety for horses and riders.
Presentations on racetrack surfaces, jockey safety, horsemanship courses, and the Equine Injury Database will be spotlighted at the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit July 8 at Keeneland in Lexington.
Jockey Club chairman Ogden Mills "Dinny" Phipps will deliver the keynote address at the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities conference Oct. 6 at the France Galop offices in Paris.
Del Mar announced Aug. 1 that it will eliminate turf sprints and no longer conduct grass claiming races as part of its response to a rash of injuries on the new course, which was installed this past winter.
A pair of presenters on racetrack surfaces at the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit talked about how improved information is helping to improve surfaces throughout the U.S.
Keeneland will remove its synthetic Polytrack surface at the end of the spring meet and return its main track to dirt before its fall meeting this October, the Lexington oval announced April 2.
With the announcement that Del Mar plans to switch from Polytrack back to a dirt main track in 2015, the grand experiment with synthetic racing surfaces in Southern California is likely coming to an end.
Combining data with superintendents' experience key to developing new protocols for racetrack maintenance.
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Santa Anita's track president told the California Horse Racing Board that he hoped to have the track open for training by July 26.
Churchill Downs Inc. reinforced its safety initiatives April 11 and said it plans to seek re-accreditation for its four racetracks through the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Safety and Integrity Alliance.
With Kentucky's Louisville area in the midst of a severe drought, the turf course at Churchill Downs "is about as firm as it ever gets in the fall," track superintendent Butch Lehr said.
Santa Anita is about to become the first California racetrack to abandon the 2006-mandated synthetic surface experiment and return to dirt.
The Oak Tree Racing Association appears to be on the move once again after horsemen refused to go along with holding the fall meeting at Santa Anita over concerns with the main track's condition.
The California Horse Racing Board has arranged for Dr. Michael "Mick" Peterson, a well-known professor of engineering at the University of Maine, to inspect the main track at Santa Anita Park this coming week.
Dr. Michael "Mick" Peterson will address "Assessing Track Surfaces" at a seminar for horsemen to be held in Arcadia, Calif., March 14. Peterson is the executive director of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory.
After track superintendents from across the nation discussed various methods for maintaining their individual surfaces at the Track Superintendent Field Day at Keeneland June 3, Dr. Mick Peterson offered ways to apply what was learned and make the necessary changes to lessen on-track injuries.
Emphatic calls for change in dealing with horse racing injuries and related prevention methods were made April 24 during a panel discussion at the annual Association of Racing Commissioners International Conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
The Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit opens Monday at Keeneland in Lexington with a session of presentations and panel discussions that will be open to the public.
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