A pair of presenters on racetrack surfaces at the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit talked about how improved information collection is helping to improve surfaces throughout the United States during a session July 9 at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky.

Mick Peterson, MS, PhD, executive director of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory, said better record-keeping of track maintenance is improving track safety and consistency, especially with dirt surfaces. With major tracks like Del Mar, in California, and Keeneland planning to switch their main tracks from synthetic to dirt surfaces next year, such information will be especially important.

"The best dirt is not as good as synthetic, but it's close," Peterson said of the safety records of the two surfaces. "If we look year to year, the good dirt tracks are almost as good as the synthetics."

Peterson noted that his lab is not able to give tracks a magic bullet on dirt surface make-up because each track's need varies by region and weather. Even once a track has a top mix for its dirt surface, maintaining that track is paramount. Peterson said the biggest factor in maintenance of dirt and turf surfaces is water content