BALTIMORE CO, Md. — After the recent incidents at Laurel Park horsemen stress the importance of having a safe track.
The two horses that were euthanized after the races at laurel park were put down due to injuries they sustained making them unable to race.
They are the latest of a total of 13 race horses who have died since January at Laurel Park according to the Maryland Racing Commission.
Mike Pons, who is a third generation horseman and co-owner of Country Life and Merryland farms was sad when he heard the news.
"Oh it breaks your heart. you know we work so hard to get our product to the races. You know the horses that leave this training track here this 5-8ths mile training track here at Merryland go primarily to Pimlico and Laurel but they go to Delaware they go to Pennsylvania they go all over the east coast to race and its paramount that we have a safe race track," says Mike
RELATED: A lack of entries over track safety concerns continues to halt live horse racing at Laurel Park
The conditions of a track can vary depending on many factors, mainly the weather and overall upkeep of the track.
If it rains or the track freezes over it can impact how hard the track is.
The track cannot be too saturated or too dry, the upkeep of a track is vital for how the horses will be able to run.
“Its like part cooking and part science, you know you have to stay on it and anticipate and try to stay out ahead of it and its difficult to do because we all know what the weather does around here," he says.
Mike also says he is glad to hear that John Passero was chosen to inspect the track at laurel park.
“He helped me here with this race track you know on a hot July day he walked the track with my brother and i and found two or three spots we had to fix and then he came back later and inspected it all and knock on wood we have been good ever since.”
The racing commission will make a final decision if races can continue at laurel park this week once they get the results of today's inspection.
