The injuring of one of the horses in the field at Caymanas Park last Saturday has reignited the debate about the maintenance of the racing surface at Caymanas Park.
Anthony Nunes' highly thought of 2-year old colt and classic aspirant "Run Cyaan Dun" snapped its left fore leg and subsequently had to be euthanized on the track.
According to Nunes, the state of the track contributed in some way to the demise of his charge.
However, Caymanas Track Limited, the promoters of local horse racing, has strongly defended its maintenance record for what is the second largest track in the western hemisphere.
According to racing secretary, Denzil Miller Jr, Caymanas Park is within the international standard with the horses’ footprint, which is a three inch depth of a toe print from a gallop.
After each race these footprints have to be removed to ensure the safety of other horses.
A tractor operates as a rake while a water truck functions as a sprinkler.
Both are used consistently on race days.
There is also what is known as a screener, which acts as a sieve and rids the track of all forms of debris.
This is used when the track is regraded once per month.
Another piece of equipment, the track conditioner, detects, cuts and evens out any hard spots in the track.
Following last Saturday's incident, an immediate inspection of the area in question was conducted
According to Miller, the CTL has a very rigid standard of maintenance for what is the second largest track in the western hemisphere.
A new form of raking was introduced by the track superintendent earlier this year, and according to Miller, this has resulted in a 30% decrease in catastrophic breakdown by horses on race days.
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