FAKE DIRT RIGHT ON TRACK.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

INGLEWOOD - Hollywood Park is laying the groundwork for laying the groundwork.

A month after the California Senate passed a bill requiring the state's major thoroughbred tracks to install synthetic racing surfaces by the end of 2007, the Inglewood landmark appears poised to be the first to announce a deal to put in the ersatz earth.

The project could begin as soon as the current season closes July16.

Executives have completed an educational tour of U.S. and European facilities that feature Polytrack and similar synthetics. Arrangements have been made for SantaAnita to take Hollywood Park's turn this summer as the L.A. track that stays open for training during the DelMar season. Now it's up to Bay Meadows Land Company, which has owned Hollywood Park since September, to complete an agreement with one of the handful of companies that produce and install the complex surfaces.

The goal is kinder footing for horses and easier upkeep in bad weather, and some trainers say the sooner the better, including Hall of Famer Richard Mandella and Hollywood Park leader Doug O'Neill.

``I'm very much for it,'' O'Neill said between races Thursday. ``We've got so much invested in these animals. The one thing we lack is a safe, consistent surface. I think this would be good for the image of the game. It shows we care about the horses.''

But voices are being raised in opposition -- or at least to say whoa, not so fast.

``Obviously, everybody's for what's best for the horses,'' trainer John Sadler said. ``But there's other things to look at (to make horses healthier). What about running fewer dates? What about cleaning up the medication laws?

``It's an unknown to me. I'm not in the camp that says it's a cure-all. We were kind of hoping they'd put it on the training tracks first and see what it's like.''

Said trainer Mike Mitchell: ``I want change, but I think they're jumping into it too fast. I think the best thing to do would be for all the horsemen to vote on it. If over 50 percent say they want it now, good. They're the ones that this is going to affect as much as the racetracks.''

Mitchell said he's resigned to the idea that within a couple of years, Hollywood Park, Santa Anita, Del Mar and the San Francisco area's Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields will have replaced their organic main tracks with synthetic surfaces, a move first urged officially by the California Horse Racing Board in February.

``It sure sounds like it's going to happen,'' Mitchell said, ``and it sounds like Hollywood will be the first one that does it.''

At a cost estimated at up to $8 million, Hollywood Park would aim to have the new surface in place for the fall season that opens Nov. 1. Typically laid over a drainage system and strips of rocks and tarmac pieces, a synthetic surface is a seven- to eight-inch layer of wax-coated fibers and rubber strips.

At Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., which in 2005 became the first U.S. track to install a synthetic surface, the early evidence has been encouraging. At Turfway's winter-spring meeting this year, three horses were reported to suffer so-called catastrophic injuries, down from 24 in the meet before the switch. Hollywood Park execs were given similar positive reports by horsemen in England, where Newmarket has used synthetic gallops for more than a decade and Lingfield opened a synthetic racetrack in 2001.

Keeneland, in Lexington, Ky., and Woodbine, in Toronto, will be the next U.S. tracks to make the change.

Hollywood Park could be right behind them.

Trainers' concerns include: How would the wax react to California's extreme heat? How would the surface be affected by the heavy traffic on tracks here? What are the effects of horses and jockeys breathing the fibers kicked up in races? How will the integrity of the sport's record book be affected by the usually slower artificial footing? Will a more consistent surface cost fans such handicapping niceties as track biases?

But especially after Barbaro's Preakness breakdown turned up the pressure to improve safety, it's going to be hard to dissuade officials who believe they have horses' well-being at heart.

``The bottom line is, if you can keep horses sounder, that's good for the trainers, the owners and the tracks,'' said Martin Panza, Hollywood Park's vice president for racing. ``I think it's a chance for California to get back a lot of owners who have left.''

Relax, sports purists. It will be a long time before racehorses compete on artificial turf. But it may be only months before Southern California thoroughbreds run on artificial dirt.

heymodesti(AT_SIGN)aol.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

box

Box:

OUT OF THE GATE

- Kevin Modesti and Associated Press