Dirt is not for racing on!
For various reasons, I don’t like American horse racing and especially on dirt.
Small circular tracks, with the exception of Chester, are boring and lack the atmosphere and character of the tracks you get in the UK and Ireland.
In America you can use drugs to improve performance. This might be alright for the Ben Johnsons of this world, but it distorts bloodlines.
But the real problem with dirt racing, is that there is an unacceptable level of equine breakdowns and fatalities.
According to Chris McGrath in The Independent, America is reversing their incorporation of more equine-friendly artificial racing surfaces, as we have at Lingfield, Wolverhampton and Southwell. This is very much a retrograde step, but it is typical of the United States, where despite the rest of the world being different, they are always right and the rest is always wrong.
I’ll leave the last word on racing surfaces to my stallion, Vague Shot. He retired after seven seasons of hard racing without having suffered any serious injury at all. Now at the age of 28, he is still fit and sound and if he feels so inclined he can still do a full roll both ways. He may be the oldest Royal Ascot winner still alive. but he would have been dead many years ago if he had raced on dirt in the United States.
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The Anonymous Widower 
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