Bob:

I think we can say that we are all pretty squarely behind anything which enhances the safety of horse and rider, but that can in itself be a slippery slope. When it was proposed that the scale of weights be raised for the good of the jockeys, a few old established trainers opposed it because of their belief that the extra weight would detract from the long term soundness of the horses.

I agree with Chuckles that there should be no rush to judgment after just one or two years of racing on Polytrack at one venue. The decrease in catastrophic breakdowns is of course encouraging, but not scientific enough. I think the long term future of Polytrack will be that synthetic TRAINING tracks will be constructed at all major racing venues. This will have a two fold beneficial effect: 1) morning training (where most of a horse's miles are logged) can be conducted over the allegedly safer synthetic surface and 2) main (dirt) tracks may benefit (may be safer) due to the fact that they are devoted strictly to racing and the occasional workout.