Horse & Dog Natural or synthetic surfaces?

[Tolly]

What do you prefer races on, natural or synthetic surfaces? The synthetic surfaces are safer for the horses, but there have been suggestions that the jockeys push the horses harder as a result, changing the nature of the race.

 

[lordcole]

This is a tricky question because different horses adapt to different surfaces over time. If you are looking to bet on a particular horse winning, it is best to look at the specifics like the kind of surface that it best races on. In my opinion, the natural surfaces aren't any 'harmful' to the horses.

 

[tito]

I didn't know that it made that much difference to the race whether it was played on natural or synthetic surfaces. I think Lordcole has a point. To get a proper answer you would have to observe one horse on the two different surfaces over a number of races.

 

[zohan]

It depends on whose point of view you are asking this question from. If you are a jockey and your horse races well on a dirt surface, you'll prefer to enter into races with dirt surfaces. The thing here is, the kind of surfaces the races are run on determine the horses that are likely to win.