Has the wet weather made racing safer?

[emmah1979]

The wet weather has made for some pretty atrocious racing conditions over the winter with most NH meets seeming to be soft or heavy going. However, from an observer's point of view this seems to have resulted in far fewer falls and fatalities. Obviously the horses are travelling slower but I thought that energy sapping ground would result in more falls due to fatigue. Interested to hear whether those in the racing industry think heavy ground is safer or does it actually cause more injuries due to strained tendons etc.

 

[Hiloire]

Heavy ground has been shown to be safer as although the horses get tired more quickly, when they do fall they are going slower and so tend to crumble to the ground rather than smash into it, which results in less catastrophic injuries! There's been quite a lot if research done into the risk factors involved in racing if you have a search on the Internet!