Thistledown racetrack outside Cleveland, Ohio, has canceled its Wednesday and Thursday race cards, according to a notification the track sent to Equibase, among concerns about rocks in its racing surface.
The track had already canceled its Monday and Tuesday cards when the notification went out. According to Heriberto Rivera Jr., the Jockeys’ Guild representative who is working with the track’s riders, rocks began appearing in the surface on Monday, and despite some work on the surface Monday and Tuesday, the situation had not been resolved.
“We think they may have gone too deep [with track maintenance], maybe they are bringing things up from the base,” Rivera said. “Early on Tuesday during training hours things were looking good, but then around 10 o’clock riders were coming back saying there were more rocks.”
Rivera said that the decisions to cancel on Monday and Tuesday were “mutual” among riders, trainers, and management.
Thistledown has eight races scheduled for both the Wednesday and Thursday cards. Its next scheduled live racing date is July 28. The track races on a Monday-to-Thursday schedule.
According to an official with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak, Thistledown fired its track superintendent, Sean Wright, in the wake of the incident, and has brought on David Ellsworth, a longtime racing official at the track until his retirement last year, to supervise the work to remove the rocks and restore the surface.
Wright took over as track superintendent earlier this year.
The situation at the track was first reported by Horse Racing Nation.
According to HRN, horsemen organized a “rock-picking session” over the one-mile dirt track on Tuesday, HRN said.
“We had about 50 people walking the track and removing rocks from the surface,” said Dave Basler, the executive director of the Ohio Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, who did not return a phone call on Tuesday from Daily Racing Form. “We feel good that we took care of the rock concern and are going in the right direction.”
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