Beulah surface to be overhauled

After four straight cancellations, Beulah Park was open for training Thursday.

Beulah's problems began after snow fell last Friday. The snow was removed from the track with a road grader, which also scraped off part of the track's cushion. The temperature rose Saturday, resulting in a sloppy surface over a frozen base, and racing was canceled. Rain this week prevented replacing the lost cushion material, and Beulah canceled its planned Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday cards.

On Thursday, Joe Deluca, the track steward who is also in charge of maintaining the surface, was confident the problem had been resolved and that Friday's card would go on as scheduled.

"We are adding surface to compensate for what was lost," he said. "When we close next week, we will be installing an all-new surface that will be ready when we reopen in January."

Beulah will close Dec. 22 and begin its winter/spring meet Jan. 7.

According to Dave Basler, executive director of the Ohio Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Agency, it was a joint decision between horsemen and management to cancel.

"We have discussed with management adding a day this meet and possibly adding a few days to the beginning of the new meet," said Basler.