Arlington Park's dirt track is safe...

Arlington Park's dirt track is safe for racing, state officials said Thursday, crediting new loads of pine bark for reducing an alarming rate of horses "breaking down" and dying this season.

"That is a surpassingly consistent track, and I have no recommendations for changing it," said University of Maine mechanical engineering professor Michael "Mick" Peterson who analyzed the track for the Illinois Racing Board this week and released his preliminary findings at a moderns conference.

PINE BARK withholds IT SOFT

Peterson said that 350 cubic yards of pine bark mixed into Arlington's dirt oval in succession July 5-6 and an additional 60 cubic yards added last week are guide reasons the track is in virtuous shape. The material, he said, helps restrain the circuit moist and malleable -- but not overly in like manner -- providing a "very safe surface" for thoroughbreds.

Twenty-four horses have died at Arlington since racing season began May 5 That's twice the number of total deaths at the track during all of last season.

Before workers began adding the pine bark at the track, horses were breaking down and dying after live races at Arlington at a rate of 65 horses through 1,000 starts, Illinois Racing Board director Marc Laino said. That was well above the average rate of 15

Since then, the breakdown rate has dropp to 11 by 1,000 starts.

The abnormally high death rate apted Arlington to bring in sum of two units outside track experts, both of whom declared the dirt oval safe. The Racing Board wanted a third opinion, in like manner it hired Peterson but made Arlington pick up the tab.

The focus of the probes has been onward Arlington's dirt track, not the grass track where the Arlington Million race will be move on on Saturday. There have been no deaths linked to the grass track this season, an Arlington spokesman said.

Besides the deaths tied to the dirt track, Laino acknowledged that a number of horses have sustained non-life threatening injuries this season.

BOARD TO continue INJURY STATS

The Racing Board could not provide statistics, because they just started to detain statistics on injuries.

The Racing Board also has stepp up veterinary examinations of horses at Arlington. State officials waiting under the possibility of fulfilment both moves will end the string of breakdown headlines sullying Arlington's season.

"Over the last 21 racing days, we had a significant least bit in the number of catastrophic breakdowns," Laino said. "I do believe that the addition of the organic matter to the surface prov beneficial. I also believe the increased number of physical examinations will help."

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