Track Superintendents - the three generations of the Moore family and how they have track management has changed over the last fifty years
/Article by Ed Golden
Dennis Moore’s career as the world’s foremost race track superintendent drew its first breath back in the 1930s, when his father, Bob, began a move akin to the Joad family’s forced escape to California from Oklahoma’s Dust Bowl, captured so poignantly in John Steinback’s 1939 classic, “The Grapes of Wrath.”
Bob Moore, who passed away in 1987, was the patriarch of a family devoted to track maintenance and the safety of horses. In 1946, he went to work at Hollywood Park where he was a long-time track superintendent at the Inglewood, California track which closed on Dec. 22, 2013. Bob’s sons, Ron and Dennis, followed in his footsteps.
They have been track superintendents at Santa Anita, and now his grandson, Rob, Dennis’ son, is taking over at the historic Arcadia, California track. In addition, they lend their services to Los Alamitos in Cypress, while Dennis also consults and plies his trade at tracks throughout the United States and across the globe.
“I’ve done work overseas at probably over 150 different race tracks,” said Dennis, a native Californian who celebrated his 74th birthday this past Dec. 7. “I don’t count the tracks anymore. I didn’t want to leave California as a kid and now I’ve been to Germany, France, Dubai, all over the world. This is a great job, but you’ve got to have thick skin.
“You listen to the trainers, but not those who make it personal and yell and scream and cuss. I won’t tolerate that, although sometimes their complaints are legitimate and you investigate, so all the scientific testing we do right now is a big help.
Bob Moore
“My dad came out here in ’38. He hopped a freight train and lived in hobo camps. He’d talk about the Dust Bowl and how they’d soak cloths in water and put them over their face so they could sleep at night.
“His father told him he could go to California as long as he’d come back and finish high school. He did that, but as soon as he finished high school he returned to California and never left.
“He got into construction as a mechanic in ’38, left Santa Anita in 1948, opened a garage in LA, then shut that down, went back to work at the track in 1953 and was there until he retired in 1979.
“I was born in 1949; my brother was born in ’46. We’d go back and forth from Hollywood Park to Santa Anita. That was the circuit at that time, because Del Mar’s work was all done by Teamsters which had its separate crew.
“That’s how my brother and I got involved with the race tracks. When I was about six years old, in the summer, we’d go to work with my dad sometimes. We’d ride on the harrows after the races and hang out in the garage, stuff like that. They’d race Tuesday through Saturday.
“Ron worked for a while at Hollywood Park before taking over as track superintendent at Santa Anita in 1978. In 1972, I started working at Los Alamitos before working the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita. In ’77, I became the track superintendent at Los Alamitos.”
Ron, 77 and retired, says his history at the race track began by gambling, starting with Swaps and (Bill) Shoemaker in the 50s.
“When I was 14, I got a job as a footman on the carriages that took the judges around the track, way before there was closed-circuit TV and everything,” Ron recalled.
Ron Moore
“We didn’t race Sundays then, only Saturdays and holidays, allowing me to work while still going to school, and the money I made went to betting. I didn’t do much good at it, but my interest started earlier, going to work with my dad and hanging out on the backside at Hollywood Park.
“That’s where all the stable employees would go to gamble. During the races, I always wanted to get close to the rail and wait for Shoemaker to ride by so I could wave at him.
“My first bet was made there, and I think I won $11. I did eventually work on race track surfaces at Santa Anita from 1969 to ’87. I worked as a construction laborer at Hollywood on the track crew and a little while at Los Al before I went into the Army. Later I operated racing equipment on the track.
“But give credit where credit’s due; my brother (Dennis) has been at the forefront in making racing safer. He’s never been afraid to try something new, and most times it’s not just an improvement, but a huge improvement.
“His decisions aren’t made lightly, only after much deliberation, investigation and discussion with experts on soil conservation. That’s the whole game, safety of the jockeys and the horses.
“Not because he’s my brother, but over the long haul in this country, I would say he’s done more for safety than anybody.”
Dennis & Rob Moore
Dennis has extensive experience with a multitude of surfaces--dirt, turf, and synthetics as well as related maintenance equipment, perhaps more than any living being. Dennis and Rob currently are directing a gargantuan project, installing a Tapeta training track at Santa Anita.
Track supers are burdened with a 24/7 task, shuteye a valued commodity attained at infrequent and welcome intervals. They are at the mercy of hourly weather forecasts, ringing cell phones and texts, with safety of horse and rider ever paramount.
It’s a balancing act reminiscent of the Wallendas, only this on terra firma, an indigenous tradition with the Moores who wouldn’t have it any other way. To use a football analogy, sometimes it seems like it’s always third and long.
“It’s not a nine to five job,” Dennis readily admits. “I get to the track every morning at 5:30 and don’t leave until about 6:30 (p.m.) or later. When the track is sealed, we come in about midnight, if we can open the track. There’s a lot more to it as far as maintaining, grading, the material composition and everything that goes with it.
“I have horsemen call me 4:30, 5 o’clock, 6:30 in the morning, especially when we’ve got rain, when the track is sealed or even if they want a local (weather) forecast,” Dennis said. “That’s just part of the job.
“We have a professional weather service that we use, but I have several other sites that I go on to try and make sense out of the forecast. The problem we have now is, everybody’s got a cell phone and they look at that and think it’s the accurate weather.
“But the guys we use (Universal Weather) have been professional meteorologists for 40 years and are probably right about 85 percent of the time. I’ve been using it since 1977 and my brother and dad used it before. Universal gets timely updated forecasts whereas your phone may not be updated for 12 hours.
“You consider all that information and decide if you’re going to open the track, leave it closed or what have you, and sometimes you’re the pigeon and sometimes you’re the pole, because when you’re wrong, you’re wrong, not the meteorologist.
“You learn to deal with that, because all trainers consider themselves trackmen, but trackmen aren’t trainers. Every horse isn’t going to like your track. People talk about how safe synthetic tracks are, but, since 2020, I’ll put our (safety) numbers at Santa Anita and Del Mar against any synthetic tracks in the United States.
“I think Santa Anita and Del Mar are two of the best tracks in the country of the 50-some that have been tested.
“I believe we can make dirt tracks just as safe as synthetics, but there’s a lot of work involved. All the protocols the Stronach Group started in 2019 and are in place now have helped a lot, as well.
“But it doesn’t matter if a horse gets loose in the barn area and runs into a post and kills itself. It becomes national news. Some of these horses haven’t run in a year or missed 10 months of works, so you know they’ve got issues and we review them very carefully, but you’re not going to catch every one of them; things happen.
“Most dirt tracks are comprised of sandy loam with silt clay particles,” Dennis added. “Synthetics can vary but Tapeta is the one right now that has been the most successful and that’s what is being put in the training track at Santa Anita. Along with the protocols, we have new rules and regulations we’ll follow, including a weather policy that dictates what we’ll do when we seal the track. It’s changed quite a bit from what it was in the old days.
“We’ll be able to train on Tapeta in rain, snow, sleet or whatever.”
At press time, Rob, who turned 54 the day after Christmas, was working hand in hand with Dennis in an effort to have Santa Anita’s Tapeta training track operational in January.
“So far, so good,” Rob said. “We were under time constraints trying to complete it by the first week of January. Knock on wood, everything has been going well.”
Following in the footsteps of family members was a natural transition for Rob.
“That’s all guys in my family did and talked about,” Rob said. “For me, as a little kid going to the track with all that big equipment was like playing with soccer toys. Plus meeting all the race track characters and people from different walks of life made an indelible impression. It was attractive, in that sense.
“But this job is kind of like a doctor’s in that you’re on call 24/7. I don’t think I’ve turned my (cell) phone off since I got the job. Sometimes meteorologists will forecast good weather, but then something unexpected happens like rain and wind. It seems there’s always something going on.
“The fortunate thing for me is, I grew up around it and I thought I would be prepared for everything that would come along. But I wasn’t prepared at all, because there are so many minute details to consider in addition to the track and the horses.
“When the pandemic hit, people were all talking about the horses, the horses, the horses, not about those who were on their backs. It was somebody’s father, somebody’s son, brother or sister, and that’s my biggest concern.
“At every meet, I tell our crew we don’t want to be the reason something (negative) happens. I’m real fortunate with the crew I have because the majority of them grew up in the business, they’re third-generation like I am, they have a passion for the game and they care about it.
“They pay attention to details, and that makes your job a lot easier when you have a reliable, dedicated crew. You’re only as good as your crew, plus my dad is a consultant, and he pops in every now and then pointing out potential problems.
“You’re not only responsible for the track itself, but everything that goes on around it. This is not a job you have just to make a paycheck
“If you’re a trackman and you think you know it all, then you’re screwed and you’re screwing everybody around you. My dad’s been doing this 52 years and he’s still learning. I think that’s what separates him from everybody else. He’s always trying to make things better.
“He’s a perfectionist, and it rubs off on you when you’re around it your whole life.”
Track consultant Dennis Moore alongside CHRB & track officials readying the Orono Biomechanical Surface Tester
John Sadler is among the vast majority of trainers who concurs.
“Dennis Moore is the gold standard for Track Superintendents,” said Sadler, 67, a Hall of Fame member-in-waiting.
“I can’t heap enough praise on him. He’s the kind of guy you can call to discuss any issue. You can see that reflecting in our numbers favorably shifting dramatically on improved horse safety, and Dennis is a big reason for it, not to mention he’s been doing it for a hundred years.
“The good thing about Dennis is, he can’t be pushed. He’s an experienced guy who believes in what he’s doing, and you have to allow him to do his job.”
There are many special memories of Moore’s unselfish contributions to Sadler’s successes, one of which is foremost in his mind.
“It was a week before Santa Anita’s big winter meet began in 2010 and Hollywood Park still had a synthetic track at the time, and it had rained for days and days,” Sadler recalled. “I asked Dennis how Santa Anita was doing because it was closed for training due to the rain, although horses could jog the wrong way.
“I had horses pointing to the Malibu, the La Brea and the Mathis Mile, and Dennis said he might be able to open. So I vanned my horses over there and got to work on them, and we won all three stakes on the opening day card. Sidney’s Candy won the Mathis, Twirling Candy won the Malibu and Switch won the La Brea.
“Dennis, communicated well and I got my works in. He wasn’t doing me a special favor, just telling me what was going on . . . a great guy.”
Another tried and true member of the Dennis Moore fan club is Richard Mandella, who offered the following unsolicited praise.
“Track maintenance has everything to do with safety, and the Moore family is as good as it gets,” said Mandella.
Dennis Moore – the gold standard for Track Superintendents
“It’s not an exact science, and everybody has to understand that,” Mandella added. “It’s something you have to have a feel for, and the Moores have always been excellent. Variables in track surfaces can work both ways for everybody, and even on a normal race track, that comes into play.
“Some horses like deep tracks, some like them hard and fast. I don’t know if that’s important as far as safety is concerned, but the most important thing is uniformity and having a nice, even bottom with some bounce in the track so that horses are stable with it. It’s a combination that requires flexibility.”
While Dennis is primarily focused on safety and fulfilling random requests for trainers, it’s unreasonable to expect him to comply with all of them.
“I’m sure he tries,” Mandella said, “but in my experience being on the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT) track committee for so many years is that if you have 10 trainers talking about track conditions, the ones who are winning like it, and the ones who aren’t, don’t.
“It’s not easy to maintain a neutral position, but if anybody does it, Dennis Moore does.”