Breeders’ Cup returning to Santa Anita in 2008

The Breeders’ Cup will return to Southern California in 2008, with Santa Anita Park poised to become the first track to stage horse racing’s year-end championships on a synthetic surface.

The historic Arcadia racetrack, which had the event in 1986, 1993 and 2003, is scheduled to replace its dirt main track with a synthetic track this summer under an edict to the state’s major tracks by the California Horse Racing Board. It is hoped that synthetic surfaces will diminish catastrophic injuries to horses. The turf course will remain natural grass.

Greg Avioli, president and chief executive of Breeders’ Cup Ltd., said Thursday, “There were absolutely no concerns” about staging the event on a synthetic surface for the first time, and Breeders’ Cup officials hoped the surface would attract more European horses.

Avioli stopped short of saying all future Breeders’ Cups would be on artificial tracks.

“At present, there is no such mandate,” he said. “What comes to mind is Churchill Downs and Belmont. If those two don’t move to synthetic tracks, that would in no way keep them from hosting future Breeders’ Cups.”

The two-day event, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 24 and 25, 2008, during the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita, will mark the seventh time the Breeders’ Cup has been in the Los Angeles area since the inaugural event at Hollywood Park in 1984.

Hollywood Park, which has had the Breeders’ Cup three times, replaced its main track with synthetic Cushion Track last year.

The 2008 Breeders’ Cup also will mark the first time a Southern California track has had the expanded two-day Breeders’ Cup program, a format being introduced this October at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. There, three new races will be run on Friday before the traditional eight on Saturday. The 11 races will pay $23 million in purses. By 2008, the number of races could expand to 12 or more, Avioli said.

Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of Oak Tree Racing Assn., the nonprofit group that operates the Oak Tree meet and will conduct the Breeders’ Cup, said the planned synthetic surface and two days of racing will make the event stand out from previous Breeders’ Cups.

Recent high-profile injuries such as Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro’s ultimately fatal accident last May in the Preakness and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff fatality to Pine Island in November have put a spotlight on horse safety. Racing industry experts believe synthetic surfaces -- typically made of a combination of sand, wax and synthetic fibers -- are “kinder” to horses and provide surer footing than traditional dirt tracks.

Magna Entertainment Corp., the owner of Santa Anita Park, has yet to announce which brand of synthetic surface will be installed this summer in preparation for the fall meet. Officials have considered the brand Pro-Ride as well as Cushion Track and Polytrack, the brand recently installed at Del Mar, and Tapeta Footings.

“You’ve seen the effect right here at Hollywood Park,” Chillingworth said. “Everyone loves the Cushion Track over there.

“I think it will make everybody rest a little easier, as far as the injuries that might be sustained if we didn’t have a synthetic track.”

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The California Horse Racing Board approved new penalties for medication violations that include potential sanctions and fines against owners and veterinarians, not only trainers.

Said Richard B. Shapiro, chairman of the CHRB and a horse owner, “It holds me responsible to know that my trainer isn’t going to do something wrong, because I don’t want the fine. It’s sending the message that we are making sure the integrity of our game is protected.”

robyn.norwood@latimes.com