Belmont Park to install synthetic surface on pony track

The New York Racing Association will dip its toe in the waters of synthetic surfaces by replacing the current dirt surface of the pony track at Belmont Park with a synthetic one.

The quarter-mile track, located just outside the barn area at Belmont, will this summer be refitted with a synthetic surface, though the exact type of material has not yet been determined. The plan is to have it ready for use this fall, following the Saratoga meet.

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Putting a synthetic surface on the pony track will give NYRA’s track maintenance staff experience with how to maintain such a surface in the event NYRA, sometime in the future, opts to shift its dirt racing surfaces at Aqueduct, Belmont or Saratoga to synthetic.

“With the new developments of waxes and oils there are different ways of maintaining them,” Glen Kozak, NYRA senior vice president/operations and capital projects, said Monday during a meeting of the Franchise Oversight Board. “It’s certainly going to be much easier to learn on a quarter of a mile track than on a mile or a mile and a half racing surface to be able to learn how to manage it.”

Kozak said he would want to the ability to maintain the synthetic surface through multiple cycles of varying weather conditions.

“That way we’re able to determine how the track reacts to all the different weather - spring, winter, fall, cold weather, ice and snow,” Kozak said. “If it is something we would look to use in the future, we’re getting a true view of how it actually handles the conditions.”

NYRA has already put synthetic material down in two barns at Belmont where horses are able to jog on days when their trainers don’t want to send them to the track.

The surface switch of the pony track was part of the capital and operating budgets submitted to and approved by the Franchise Oversight Board on Monday.

NYRA obtains money for capital and operating expenses from a percentage of slot revenue from Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct. NYRA is in dispute with Resorts World over certain provisions of guaranteed payments due NYRA from that revenue.

“Right now, they’re paying at a different level based on their interpretation of that definition,” Gordon Lavalette, NYRA’s chief operating and chief financial officer, told the board. “We definitely think our definition is the right one but we’re still working that through.”

Some of the other capital projects NYRA is working on include upgrades to its food and beverage equipment at all tracks; a new drainage system and safety rail on the main track at Saratoga; and upgrades to premium hospitality areas at Saratoga, including the glass-enclosed suite in the box-seat area that overlooks the finish line. NYRA is also looking to construct a permanent structure where a picnic area currently exists at the top of the stretch at Saratoga.

Dave O’Rourke, NYRA president and chief executive officer, said NYRA is a few months away from presenting plans to refurbish Belmont Park to the FOB. Part of the goal of a refurbishing of Belmont is to make it suitable for year-round racing, thus allowing NYRA to ultimately close Aqueduct.

“We went through our building, what we have, what we would ideally need to run year round at Belmont,” O’Rourke said. “Within the next couple of months all that preliminary work would be wrapped up and we will be sharing with the FOB.”

* Through the first two months of the year, there have been three racing-related fatalities at Aqueduct, the same number at this time in 2019. There have been 154 more starters during that time this year than last year, and the catastrophic injury rate is 1.57 per thousand starters this winter compared to 1.71 through the same period last year.

Through the first two months, there have been two training fatalities over the Belmont Park training track, which is 50 percent fewer than last winter.

On Jan. 1, NYRA closed Aqueduct for training, meaning all the horses on this circuit train over the Belmont training track.

* O’Rourke told the FOB about a change to the Belmont Park stakes schedule, owing to the opportunity to get some races on NBC Sports.

The Grade 2, $500,000 Suburban and Grade 2, $300,000 John Nerud will be moved to July 4 from the July 11 Stars and Stripes program in order to get on national TV.

The July 11 card will still feature the Belmont Derby and Belmont Oaks - both Grade 1 turf stakes for 3-year-olds and 3-year-old fillies - as well as the Grade 2 Dwyer and Grade 3 Victory Ride.