The Prius And Synthetic Surfaces Revisted

The unintended consequences of "consumer morality" have once again caused havoc for those that travel on four legs or four wheels. The complex designs of the Toyota Prius and the Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita have placed people in danger. We first drew parallel lines between these two technological wonders last year. Since then the troubles of both technologies have increased exponentially.

One of the chief appeals of the Prius is the moral high ground. Through technology this automobile promises to be efficient and safe. Through technology the problems of pollution and finite resources are addressed. Saving fuel and producing less emissions makes people feel good about themselves. They may be saving even more fuel after faulty software causes difficulty braking and drivers end up injuring themselves and their family in a crash. The Prius is rated at 49 MPG highway. My 87' Chevy Sprint was rated at 51 MPG highway and the brakes worked like a charm twenty years ago. The Sprint was smart compact design, that was simple and easily maintainable for years and years of use. The Prius will be difficult to maintain over the long term; after a few years a huge chemical laden battery must be disposed of and replaced. This could flood the environment with lead, nickel and lithium. Over the long term this car will be plagued by unintended consequences.

23 year old Chevy Sprint has better MPG than cutting edge Prius

Santa Anita's Pro-Ride surface is much like the Prius. Both are an outgrowth of "ethical consumerism". When California mandated that tracks install a synthetic racing surface, they did this action with nothing but moral benevolence in their hearts. This technology was supposed to mitigate the consequences of injuries and death. The Pro-Ride was a way to use technology to increase safety and make horse racing a kinder and gentler endeavor. The Pro-Ride surface has been a miserable failure. Not only are the safety benefits not been realized but this is an all-weather surface only if the weather is sunny.

Once again rain caused Santa Anita to close this weekend causing untold hardship for the horsemen and track management. The unintended consequence of "sand gauge" has caused the drainage system to fail under the mixture of polymer, wax, sand and rubber. With poor drainage this technology is rendered a complete failure, much like the driver that crashes their Prius due to brake failure.

Are the stats showing that synthetic surfaces are safer than dirt accurate? Ed at BEB brings up a salient point regarding the stats comparing surfaces. The stats comparing synthetic to dirt surfaces are comparing new synthetic surfaces to dirt surfaces that may be 50 years old. A closer look reveals that the problems with horse breakdowns are not a surface issue but track maintenance issues. Not only did technology not address the problem, but what is even worse they may be addressing the wrong problem. The rash of breakdowns at places like Del Mar was more of a track maintenance issue that was framed as a surface issue as there is more money in selling a new surface than maintaining a racetrack to exacting standards. In just a few years when the new surfaces wear out, the track maintenance issues will return.

While the early stats look good for a new all-weather surface, this has not been proven over time. As these surfaces age they may disintegrate into something more dangerous than the dirt surfaces they replaced. Over time the Prius may not be a viable vehicle after a few years as it's complex systems fail and repairs exceed the cost of acquiring a new vehicle. Once again the technology that delivers ethical consumerism has failed. It turns out there is so substitute for simple yet smart design coupled with sound maintenance.

Polytrack Is Horseracing's Version Of The Toyota Prius

HRTV is re-broadcasting past Breeders' Cup broadcasts during the down time in the early morning hours. Yesterday the 1986 B.C. was shown. Jockey Chris McCarron was off all of his mounts with a broken leg suffered just days before the B.C. In 2009 television will shy away from showing a horse suffering a fatal breakdown, in 1986 they showed the breakdown that led to McCarron's injury 4 times! Snap, snap, snap, snap! This led me to reflect on cultural changes over the last few decades and the realization that racing is in worse shape than I previously thought. Not only is racing feeding the slot machine gambling vice that will succeed it, but racing is completely unfit for the new consumer morality that holds sway today.

For hundreds of years western civilization operated under the Christian moral order; the morality of the Old Testament Hebrews, the philosophy of Greece and the law of Rome. Virtue was a product of the love of God, the love of family and control of self passions. If you fulfilled these three requirements your conscience was clear. After the sexual revolution of the 1960's the moral order was out the door. Science was tabbed to run the show and it was scientifically proven that Darwinism could run the show better than a supernatural power, or so the social engineers thought. All of that stifling moral order self control that kept your pants zipped and passions in check was for old people and prudes. A new secular moral order based on unbridled sexual passion and consumerism was launched. It was from this new moral order that were blessed with things like Polytrack and organic brown rice pasta.


God became money, the family became your roommates or television watching mates. In the new morality self control was only limited by the extent of your means. A new morality replaced the old moral order. I will call it "consumer morality", or basically technology and social engineering in the place of the moral law written on our hearts. For an example of this new morality you only need to go to a grocery store and see consumer morality in action, the outlet "Whole Foods" is a chain based on making their customers feel morally good about themselves. When California mandated that tracks install a synthetic racing surface, they did this action with nothing but moral benevolence in their hearts.

This new morality is all about divorcing the repercussions from the action. You can consume as much as you like but make yourself feel better and choose the organic product. You can live really far from your job but choose the hybrid car to hurt the environment less. It is okay to cheat on your wife, but be sure to wear a condom and make sure your tryst-mate is on the pill. We can bomb a country in the Middle East and spread death but we are doing this to encourage "woman's rights". The new morality requires no effort. It is all about feeling good about yourself by doing what you what you wanted to do anyway, but doing it in a way that integrates technology to shield the world from the effects of your consumerism.

Polytrack is racing's big foray into this new morality; it was an attempt to mitigate horse breakdowns by applying technology. Judging by the reaction of the fans and the trainers this new morality has not worked well for racing. The breakdowns have not only continued but a new type of "soft tissue injury" has emerged. The fans crowded into OTB's and other wagering venues do not seem to share this "consumer morality" that much of the suburban middle class has embraced. If polytrack gets in the way of their golden rail speed bias angle there will be hell to pay. Parimutuel wagering on synthetic racing surfaces has disproportionately crashed, while handle on old style dirt like Saratoga has suffered more modest losses. There seems to be a moral crisis among American horseplayers when it comes to synthetic surface wagering; they do not share the altruistic goals and have not supported the endeavor. With horses getting hurt and bettors abstaining racing has a problem. Racing has not been able to divorce the repercussion of horse injury from the action of racing.

With so many options for entertainment or gambling vice why would new "moral consumers" choose a sport that brutally maims animals from time to time. They would choose to do something like skateboarding or if they wanted to gamble the choice would be poker where the only organic damage is the trees felled to produce the cards(can someone say fair trade organic playing cards!).

This leaves racing with only one core customer, the immoral degenerate. The bourgeois consumer moralists are going to shun racing due to the occasional horse breakdown and the lack of "feel good" appeal. What racing is left with is those that are filled with vice, and those that go from one debauchery to the next without a care in the world. That is why racetracks and OTB's are filled with old men that burst with profanity, suck on cheap cigarettes and could care less about what you think of them. They are vestiges of a time long gone. The new consumer morality did not stick to these people and they likely would not have participated in the old order either if they were born 40 years ago. This is why the Prius is the rarest car in the Aqueduct parking when they open the meet later today.