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The track surface of a horse racing track refers to the material of which the track is made. There are three types of track surfaces used in modern horse racing.〔 These are: *Turf, the most common track surface in Europe *Dirt, the most common track surface in the US *Artificial or Synthetic, the collective term for a number of proprietary man-made surfaces in use at a number of locations around the world. The style of racing differs between surfaces, with dirt races tending to be faster than those on turf or artificial surfaces.〔 Anecdotally, dirt racing is the more reliable, and thus more popular, medium for betting purposes.〔 Weather conditions affect the speed of the different surfaces too, and grading systems have been developed to indicate the track condition (known as the "going" in the UK and Ireland). ==Synthetic surfaces== Synthetic surfaces allow racing to take place in bad weather conditions, when it may otherwise be cancelled, and for this reason are sometimes referred to as All Weather surfaces. Manufacturers of synthetic racetrack surface materials promote the fact that synthetic tracks have drainage attributes that are better than natural surfaces. There is also some evidence to suggest that synthetic surfaces are safest in terms of equine welfare.〔 The first synthetic surface used for thoroughbred racing was Tropical Park's Tartan turf, a synthetic surface similar to Astroturf installed in 1966. Tartan turf was never a success with horsemen.〔(Short history of Tropical Park by Hale, Ron (1997) ) (retrieved May 2, 2008 from about.com)〕 The first synthetic surface to replace dirt in the United States was installed at The Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Washington, PA in 1963. This surface, called Tartan, was found to be unsatisfactory and removed and replaced with a traditional limestone surface in 1975. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Track surface」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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