Thank you, Bob, but you failed to catch the slightest vein of cynicism in my
post. I am not quite sold on Synthetic yet, but will keep an open mind. It will
take years IMO to see what the long term effect of Synthetic on Racing will be.

The "cynic" within me still adheres to the following beliefs:

1) Synthetic came to pass partially because there are fewer and fewer competent
track superintendents out there;

2) Synthetic came to pass partially because there are fewer and fewer competent
horsemen out there;

3) Synthetic came to pass partially because the thoroughbred gene pool has been
expanded and diluted, creating a horse population which is more and more
fragile;

4) The people who market Synthetic are brilliant, and if part of the marketing
strategy was to personally enrich the people who made the decision to accept
Synthetic without hesitation (I'm thinking California here) it wouldn't
surprise me.

Bob we agree on one thing, at least-- the overall soundness and health of
racehorses should always be the primary focus. I am just reserving my judgment
on whether Synthetic is the answer.