HISA names members of Track Surface Advisory Group

Jim Pendergest, the longtime director of racing surfaces for Keeneland, will chair the newly formed Track Surface Advisory Group for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the group announced Thursday.

Pendergest will be one of seven volunteer members of the committee, which is expected to conduct on-site inspections at tracks “as needs arise,” according to HISA. An ad hoc version of the committee was formed in August to perform examinations of the racing surfaces at Saratoga Racecourse.

According to HISA, the committee will “examine conditions on the ground as well as historic and pre-meet inspection data compiled by the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory,” which is located at the University of Kentucky and run by Dr. Mick Peterson. The group also will make recommendations to tracks on improving the consistency and maintenance of racing surfaces and advise HISA’s board.

In addition to Pendergest, the members of the committee are:

* Leif Dickinson, turf superintendent at Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows Training Center, both in Florida;

* Sean Gault, retired director of Thoroughbred racing surfaces at Woodbine in Etobicoke, Ontario;

* Glen Kozak, vice president of facilities and racing surfaces at the New York Racing Association;

* Jake Leitzel, manager of racetrack maintenance at Penn National, which owns a number of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse tracks throughout the United Stats;

* Dennis Moore, track superintendent at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and a consultant to 1/ST Racing; and

* Jamie Richardson, track superintendent at Churchill Downs.

HISA’s rules for racetrack safety began being enforced in most major racing jurisdictions last summer. The authority has already had to weather two high-profile spates of fatalities at major racetracks since the rules went into place, at Churchill Downs this spring and Saratoga this summer.

The committee will be assisted by two employees of the Racetrack Surfaces Testing Laboratory, Mackenzie Rockefeller and Kaleb Dempsey.

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