Indiana Grand, behind on track renovations, delays start of training

A major renovation of the dirt racing surface at Indiana Grand has fallen behind schedule because of bad weather, but while the track won’t be ready for training March 11, as had originally been hoped, the April 16 start of the 2019 racing season shouldn’t be affected.

Jon Schuster, vice president and general manager of racing at Indiana Grand, said Wednesday he hoped training could commence “a couple weeks” after the original target date. “It won’t affect the start of the season,” he said.

Schuster, in a letter sent this week to Indiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association members, said the Indiana Grand backstretch would open as planned March 9. Horsemen stabling at the track, however, can’t be sure when their stock will be able to train.

Indiana Grand began it’s roughly $750,000 renovation project just after the end of the 2018 racing season in November. The entire surface cushion was scraped from the base and repairs made to the base material as needed. A three-inch cap has been laid down atop the base and, Schuster said, is 90 percent graded and ready for the installation of the surface materials. Those materials are sourced from two locations just minutes from the track, but, owing to frigid weather, considerable rain, and freeze-thaw cycles, haven’t yet been mixed, milled and readied for actual application, Schuster said.

This is the most extensive racing surface work done at Indiana Grand since between the 2013 and 2014 seasons, when the track switched from dual-use Standardbred and Thoroughbred meetings strictly to a mixed Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred season. Between the 2017 and 2018 seasons, Schuster said, half the surface material was replaced with new cushion to improve drainage and other issues that periodically interrupted racing and training, but when that partial fix failed to resolve the problems during the 2018 meet, the decision was made to replace the entire surface and make any needed repairs to the base material.

Caesar’s Entertainment completed a purchase of Indiana Grand from Centaur Gaming last summer.