Dirt Vs. Synthetic Tracks – What’s Best For Horse Racing?

Running on Pimlico's dirt track in Maryland. (Matt Laslo/WEKU)

The Triple Crown events: the Kentucky Derby, Maryland’s Preakness and the Belmont stakes in New York, are run on dirt tracks.

Some in the horse racing industry want to end that tradition and lay down potentially safer synthetic tracks.

But with grandstands increasingly empty, critics say track owners are putting profits over safety.

With the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby coming up on Saturday, we’re taking a look this week at the horse racing industry in a series of stories produced for WEKU in Richmond, Kentucky. Today Matt Laslo reports on the dirt versus synthetics debate from the home of the Preakness.

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