You post is a little unclear -- you say "of the five breakdowns" -- how does a breakdown result from a heart attack? That follow-up article is a lot of CYA if you noticed.

Breakdowns are distorted here too. Often they are labeled as "pulled up" or "eased". I saw them put the white sheet up at one race last year at TP and the chart said "vanned off". Didn't say dead or alive however. If anything breakdowns are under-reported.

I'm not saying poly is more dangerous than dirt -- all I'm saying is that industry should avoid the "knee-jerk reaction" in rushing to install it everywhere.

I didn't get to see much of it live last night. After the first race at Polyway a transformer blew knocking out the lights in the back stretch. They worked on it for a while and then ultimately canceled racing. Hopefully a piece of poly didn't kick up and short out the transformer ;) .

It seems like many people are concerned about "THE RUSH" to install polytrack. I'm just not sensing the rush like some of you. Polytrack or its cousin Cushion track are to my knowledge now installed on a grand total of four NA race tracks. Arlington has also commited to an installation before the 07 season. The vast majority of tracks are still with the good old dirt that everyone seems to love and I don't think its a huge number of tracks that have signaled a pressing need to change. Why are people nearly apoplectic about this supposed rush. The only places where you can currently find it in action is at Turfway and Hollywood, and Holly will close soon. That will leave one track until probably the Keeneland spring meet.

To me it almost looks like what is going on is exactly what people want, a gradual rollout, testing it and evaluating it at different sites, hot and cold, and monitoring the results over several seasons.
Two cold weather sites have installed it (WO and TP) and there are reports of some issues do to freezing etc. From my own observations at Keenland I was amazed at how much water the track could take with little or no visible effect. We'll see what the consensus is at HP after the meet wraps up.

I just think we haven't even come close to crossing the point of no return yet. If the results continue to come in the way I see that they already have, slightly positive relative to dirt, then I think the trend will continue with a few tracks each year making the transition.

If on the other hand a stronger consensus starts to develop, either postive or negative, I think you'll see either a more rapid transtion or perhaps it will stop cold.

all cali tracks are having to make the switch, just read that del mar is about to make a decision. and of course arlington as well. i think keeneland is the one who really is pushing the issue at this point, since the tracks that had installed up til they did weren't major league tracks. let's face it, no one is going to hurry to follow in turfway or woodbines tracks. but keeneland?! i think the chrb jumped the gun in mandating all state tracks having to install. there's no wiggle room there. how do you argue with that, or state your case? you don't. it was pushed down the tracks throats, willing or no.

here's another thing. perception vs reality and the medias ability to skew that perception. del mar and arlington were all over the news during their most recent meets, breakdowns trumpeted as being at unprecedented levels. how much of that had to do with making a possible problem seem as a foregone conclusion? how many times was arlingtons track looked over? and by how many experts? and every time it was ruled safe. then del mar, how many breakdowns occurred early on, when horses had to re-acclimate? was it a higher than usual #? if not, why wasn't that discussed?
i'll tell you why...the almighty dollar.

Poly has received a lot of support from the horsemen and fans. Betting is up, field sizes are up. I see this surface improving with time and more research.

from the recent Michael Dickinson interview in Bloodhorse
"I believe that the tracks which install a good synthetic surface will have a lot of runners and those that stay with old dirt surface will lose horses. The owner wants his horses back. If he gets beat, it is not the end of the world; but if his horse is lame, it is not a good result and many owners leave the industry because of injuries."
http://www.bloodhorse.com/talkinhorses/MD120706.asp