There are many studies that have examined the interaction between the hoof of a horse at a racing gallop, historic track surfaces, and injury rates. Synthetic surfaces are designed to eliminate the physical properties we
know contribute to breakdown and injury.
A great source of information (you can read the abstracts and conclusions, but have to order the article if you want the details) is PubMed.
Go to
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez and enter multiple search terms such as: equine surface track
Is Belmont safer than Saratoga? Than Aqueduct? There was a study on this in the 1980's - you can look that up, very interesting
