Turfway officials monitoring racetrack drainage issue

A section of the racetrack at Turfway Park located approximately a quarter-mile before the finish is being examined after not draining adequately, leading to the cancellation of racing at the Florence, Ky. track on Thursday, Turfway Park general manager Chip Bach said.

After days of precipitation, the area had gotten “sloshy,” Bach said, leaving it inconsistent to the other parts of the racetrack. Pooling in this location was first noticed two weeks ago, and then reappeared. Combined with a Thursday evening forecast calling for steady rain during its races, Turfway chose to cancel.

The track also canceled racing on Friday night, rescheduling the John Battaglia Stakes for Feb. 15, though Bach said that cancellation was the result of low temperatures and single-digit wind chills, not the racetrack.

Regarding the troubled area, Bach said surface specialist Mick Peterson and his staff have come to Turfway to examine it. Bach said he does not anticipate any large-scale drainage repairs until after the meet concludes on March 30, if they are even needed. Except in periods of repeated days of rain, Bach believes the issue is largely manageable with harrowing and other track-maintenance methods.

The surface at Turfway Park, a synthetic brand known as Polytrack, was installed along with a new drainage system in 2005, and catastrophic injuries and weather-related cancellations dropped. Aside from high kickback during racing, over its 14-year history the surface has largely been free of the issues faced by synthetic tracks in Southern California, ultimately leading to their removal. Turfway remains one of just a handful of North American tracks racing on a synthetic surface.

“Other than a slow-draining quarter pole, our surface is pretty darn good,” Bach said.