Wednesday, January 06, 1999
Snow keeps life busy at Turfway
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FLORENCE — Dan Chapman calls it the nightmare of horse racing tracks — snow and subfreezing temperatures that force work crews to labor around the clock to keep the track surface soft under the horses' hooves.
Mr. Chapman is track superintendent at Turfway Park. His job is to oversee day-to-day preparation of the track surface for thoroughbred racing, as well as maintainance of the entire track and all the equipment needed to keep it operating.
Taking a break from operating a large earth grader that moves the dirt surface of the track, Mr. Chapman explained why so much time and effort is needed to keep the track at optimum condition.
“The nightmare around here is snow, like we had the other night,” he said Tuesday. “Once it settles into the surface and freezes, the only way to get it out is when it thaws, and that creates an entirely difference problem with too much moisture.”
A crew of some 25 track workers operates in three shifts when snow and ice visit Turfway, running tractors dragging harrows to constantly mix the sandy soil that forms the racing surface. If it is not mixed and moved, day and night, it freezes hard.
Mr. Chapman, a Gallatin County native and former farmer who now lives in Grant County near Dry Ridge, held up three steel “teeth” from a harrow, a piece of equipment that is dragged behind a tractor with the metal bar teeth extending below the frame of the harrow to mix the dirt. One of the teeth was new, while the other two had seen constant action on the track this winter and the ends were literally polished away.
“Last year we didn't have to change teeth on any of the harrows all winter, because the weather was mild and the track didn't require as much work,” he said. “But this year we are wearing them out. It's like running them around a grinding wheel, because the sand base is cutting into it and slowly removing the metal.”
In addition to running the tractors nearly non-stop during bad weather, the work crews also repair and maintain all the equipment.
An example is replacing the harrow teeth, which cost $9 each. Each harrow holds 88 teeth, and there are seven harrows in operation.
“We spend a lot of time, money and manpower on ensuring optimum track safety conditions for the horses and jockeys,” said Damon Thayer, Turfway marketing director.
Mr. Chapman, who started as a member of the work crew at Turfway in 1984 and worked his way up to superintendent, said the tractors and earth graders use 400-500 gallons of diesel fuel a week. There is about $80,000 worth of sand added to the track surface each year.
“This kind of weather means a lot of work and a lot of expense,” he said. “When the weather is good, we don't have all the machine repairs and we're not spending all our money on equipment.”
Although the horses can be exercised inside the barns during inclement weather, about 25 were out on the track Tuesday morning as the thermometer hovered around zero.
“They only worked for about an hour,” Mr. Chapman said. On Monday, “there were only seven horses out. In good weather, there will be a hundred.”
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