Santa Anita’s return to dirt won’t be cure-all

Frank Stronach, owner of Santa Anita Park, announced at a Thursday meeting -- to the delight of more than 250 horsemen -- that he is bringing back dirt to the Santa Anita main track.

The synthetic surface will be replaced after the Oak Tree fall meet -- sooner if Oak Tree opts to run its meet at Hollywood Park.

Considering the fact that Stronach is a reluctant landlord for Oak Tree, here's an idea for the parties to consider. Hollywood has already offered the free use of its racetrack to Oak Tree. The rent and receipts that Oak Tree, a nonprofit group, pays to Santa Anita is north of $4 million.

Why doesn't Oak Tree race at Hollywood and juice up the meet by splitting the $4 million between equine charities and purses? It would give Santa Anita more time to install a new dirt track before Opening Day, Dec. 26, and the charities and horsemen would receive a one-shot subsidy for this year.

With a new dirt track to race over this winter at Santa Anita, it'll be put-up-or-shut-up time for horsemen and horseplayers. For the past four years, trainers have complained bitterly about the synthetics.

However, if the number of horses injured at Santa Anita does not decrease and the number of starters per race does not increase, then the horsemen have been just blowing smoke.

The same goes for the average daily handle at Santa Anita. Horseplayers insisted they bet less because they didn't like the synthetics. If that's true, the Santa Anita handle should rise.

I don't think this will be the game changer that many others expect it to be. The problems in California racing run a lot deeper.

For example, why have hundreds of horses left Southern California for other racing venues in the past year? Granted, many departed because they were best suited for running on dirt rather than synthetics. But most left because purse money was higher for certain classes of runners elsewhere.

Consider this, if a casino gets built at Aqueduct and New York purses make a healthy spike, will we see another mass exodus of horses to New York Racing Association tracks?

By changing back to a dirt surface, Santa Anita is merely putting out the nearest fire.

■ CONTESTS -- There are two big handicapping contests next week: Pick the Ponies at the Las Vegas Hilton (Thursday through Aug. 28) and at Green Valley Ranch (Aug. 28).

Richard Eng's horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.