The material for a $7 million, all-weather, synthetic surface training track at Santa Anita will begin arriving Nov. 13. The project is part of 1/ST Racing’s announcement last summer that the company will make major 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 will serve to improve the overall safety environment while giving more options for uninterrupted training, especially during winter months that can bring heavy rainfall to Southern California.
The Tapeta surface is expected to be popular for training turf horses as well as horses who have been racing on synthetic surfaces. Additionally, 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.
The material will begin arriving a week after Santa Anita’s autumn meet ends. The material will be stored and mixed in the 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.
