The horse racing industry is continuously working to make the sport safer for all parties involved, and in 2008, the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) mandated the use of synthetic track in an attempt to reduce the number of catastrophic injuries that took place on California racing surfaces. To see if the switch was a success, Rick Arthur, DVM, the equine medical director of the CHRB, undertook a retrospective study to compare the rates of catastrophic musculoskeletal injury rates  on dirt, turf, and synthetic surfaces at the four major California racetracks (Hollywood Park, Del Mar, Santa Anita, and Golden Gate Fields) from Jan. 1, 2004 to Dec. 31, 2009.

Arthur presented his findings at the 56th annual convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, held Dec. 4-8 in Baltimore.

After three years of racing in which California tracks saw a 40% increase in equine fatalities, the CHRB made the decision to mandate synthetic track surfaces for all tracks that featured more than 30 consecutive days of racing in one calendar year, effective Jan. 1, 2008. The decision came after Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., made the switch from dirt to synthetic in 2005 and saw an 85% reduction in the number of catastrophic injuries on the track.

According to Arthur, all horses that die within the racing enclosure at CHRB tracks must undergo a necropsy. He reviewed all of the necropsy reports over the six year period to obtain his results. Arthur pointed out that he did not include several of the necropsy reports in his study, as they were not related to the track surface. The excluded fatalities were listed by track surface and included starting gate accidents, sudden deaths (such as cardiac events), and other accidents