Yesterday, Wednesday, November 1, 2006, was the first day of racing on an artificial racetrack surface in Southern California. Hollywood Park's 8 million dollar Cushion Track is similar to the surfaces that are now being used at Turfway Park and Keeneland in Kentucky, and at Woodbine in Canada. Keeneland, which used to be an extremely speed favoring track, now is extremely closer favoring.

Opening day at Hollywood was quite interesting. The Southern California tracks have always been speed favoring. Consequently, the style of racing out west was rodeo style, run and gun. As the gate springs open, riders out west have traditionally been whipping and flailing, hoping to either get the early lead, or establish early position. The result has been brutally fast opening fractions. This aggressiveness has not proven good for the physical well being of the horses. I've seen 2yo fillies making their first lifetime start go under the gun from the rail and forced to battled through a :21.2 opening quarter. Talk about gutting a 2yo.

Today's thoroughbreds are not built the same way that horses were designed years go. Because of in-breeding speed to speed, horses have frailer bodies, particularly skinnier legs than they used to. With the emphasis towards short sprint races on dirt, I guess that type of pedigree makes sense. But it has really hurt the thoroughbred industry, as countless future stars have broken down over the past 10 years.

If you doubt the pedigree aspect, just look at some old photos or tapes of horses like John Henry and Seabiscuit, both short, stocky, muscular horses. Or some big horses like Affirmed, Citation, Man O War, Secretariat.  These horses were big and strong and had wide, muscular legs.

The new artificial surfaces have proven to be much more kind to closers and to one-paced horses. Opening day at Hollywood Park was no exception. Not one horse raced wire to wire, no horse that lead at the quarter won, and no horses that had the lead at the pace call won. Only one winner even had the lead coming into the stretch.

The Cushion Track alone will not save racing. Breeders have to get smarter and start breeding horses the right way, for class and stamina, not short run speed. They may have to. As more and more tracks change over to the soft, all-weather surfaces, the horses that are bred for speed are going to have trouble winning. These new surfaces favor horses that are bred for routes, or turf.

As for the jockeys, they will also have to adjust. It will be interesting to see how Pat Valenzuela does. P. Val is perhaps the best speed rider in the sport, but he may have to change his style if he wants to remain at the top of the jockey standings at Hollywood Park.

Some things are certain. 1). Less horses will break down over the Cushion Track. 2). Closers will do much better than they did on dirt. 3). Hollywood Park will have more horses in the races because trainers will ship in from New York and other places to race there. Trainers love the Cushion Track. If their horses keep breaking down, they are out of business.