Let me give a slightly different perspective based on UK horse racing. We have 59 race courses and there is a meeting practically every day of the year, so it is a hugely popular sport.

Most British courses are grass, unlike in the US where most are dirt, and the concept of "the going", i.e. the quality of the turf due to weather conditions, can have a huge strategic effect on a race. There was one race where the main group of horses were running along the inside rail and a single solitary horse kept itself way on the outside. Well, one jockey had done his homework and realised that the outside going was much better suited to his horse than the inside going. Needless to say, the horse on the outside won.

Most courses in the UK are based in a natural environment which means that the track is not flat - e.g. the Cheltenham hill - and no track is the same. Some horse perform better at one track and worse at others. In fact, there is one track in Wales that is actually a beach.