By utsandiego.com
DEL MAR, Calif. (Feb. 10, 2014) — If you think putting in a new turf course at a racetrack is as simple as watching grass grow, well, you don’t know worms about turf.
For an understanding of how complicated it is to install a new grass course for 1,200-pound racehorses at Del Mar, know this: It all started Oct. 1, 2012 when sprigs of Greg Norman 1 (GN1) Bermuda grass were planted on a sandy, 12-acre plot in the Coachella Valley.
Now, that grass is mature and ready to be cut, rolled and transported to where the new and improved turf will meet the surf at Del Mar. For nearly 18 months, the Pacific Sod Company has followed a stringent growing and maintenance plan developed by Del Mar for its turf course.
“That’s almost a year and a half of growing, which is unheard of (for a project like Del Mar’s),” said Leif Dickinson, turf and landscape superintendent at Del Mar. “It was costly to do, and we don’t have NFL money here. But what we have is turf that is as strong as we can make it. That was the key. Grow strong turf and grow it for as long as possible. It’s in very good shape. It’s ready to go.”
Dickinson said the original plan to roll out Del Mar’s new grass was delayed by more than a month because of soft ground discovered along the backstretch. The plan called for the turf to be implanted by early January.
The old turf course was installed in time for the 1960 summer meeting. It had hidden challenges.
“A lot of areas had to be dug out,” said Dickinson, who installed Santa Anita Park’s turf course in 1996. “We found soft spots that were difficult to compact. We’re at sea level or below here. If you dig down too far, the way it was described to me, it’s kind of like a cookie on top of a milkshake. If you break through the cookie, there’s nothing left below but milkshake. We’ve had to re-form the cookie in some areas that needed it. It had to be re-compacted and sealed.”
Dickinson said the target date for installing the new grass and sod has been pushed back to around Feb. 21. Even if the turf doesn’t go in until early March, he said, the course will be ready for the Del Mar summer meeting that goes from mid-July to September.
“With our climate, we’ll be OK with the latter part of February or even the first part of March (for placing the new turf),” Dickinson said. “That’s when things actually start to grow here anyway. It’s not a deal breaker. We’re just anxious to get it down.”
When Del Mar opens in July, its tracks will sport vastly different looks and its turf will be treated very differently. The wider turf course will be able to accommodate 14 horses instead of 12, making Del Mar a more attractive site for hosting the Breeders’ Cup. Del Mar remains in ramped-up discussions with Breeders’ Cup officials, who want to bring the sport’s national championships — two days of Grade I racing in early November — to Del Mar, possibly as early as next year and likely by 2016.