Synthetics not the answer to abandoned race meetings Much has changed since the most sensational Rosehill postponement - the 1963 Golden Slipper featuring eventual winner Pago Pago. Today's Rosehill surface is superior but on Saturday it couldn't survive the impact of recent and constant heavy rain. The course proper was flooded for Pago Pago and the meeting was moved to the next Wednesday, when the surface was still awash with mud. Pago Pago recorded one minute, 15.5 seconds for the six furlongs (1200 metres), the slowest ever, but jockey Billy Pyers found the fast lane at a time when bias hadn't come into turf-speak. "What's the idea of going to the outside fence?" trainer Tom Jenner asked Pyers after the triumph. "I had to give the others a chance," Pyers quipped. Despite improvement with Rosehill, attempting to adapt to the torture of modern equine traffic and fast lanes, the cry has gone out for the introduction of synthetic tracks in or around Sydney. "People must be walking around with their eyes closed," Galilee wrote on Racenet. Synthetics just don't work. Learn from others. They are ripping them out in the US and going back to dirt. StrathAyr is the way the go. Hong Kong has high rainfall and it is rare to see meetings abandoned there. I suggest one [StrathAyr] on the course proper at Kembla Grange for transferring city meetings. Raining on record hope Some time back it appeared only an outbreak of equine influenza would prevent Chris Waller from breaking the Sydney training record of 156 held by Tommy Smith and Gai Waterhouse. But add the possibility of rain for 40 days and 40 nights. Should Waller be given respite on Monday from his ark, Relaxed And Happy in the fourth could give him one of the three wins he requires, as long as Nash Rawiller isn't bogged down with instructions. Going on pre-race announcements, Relaxed And Happy last start wasn't supposed to lead. But Rawiller rocketed him out of the gates, set his own tempo in front and Relaxed And Happy proved too good. Alas, Rawiller had to front the stipes over his audacity to ride the perfect race, as they had been told he would be back in the field. From the one gate on a saturated surface, Waller's tactical advisers will map out a desired route which, hopefully, will be left to the navigator. Dangerous therapies Carolina Gold and shockwave therapy received dishonourable mentions in A Painful Truth, a series on medication and reform in US racing encompassing "mangled horses and maimed jockeys." The amino acid, known as GABA, for gamma-aminobutyric acid, is present in Carolina Gold and is "endogenous [growing or originating from within] horses and well as humans." Described as predominantly a receptor blocker in the central nervous system, it has a "pain mitigating and calming effect that can conserve energy prior to a race." Detecting suspicious levels is difficult. The drug Lasix is permitted in the US, injected four hours before the starting gates open, and, according to the series, is topped up with Carolina Gold without trace. Shockwave therapy, too, cannot be found by traditional methods. It is used by trainers for an analgesic effect on horses when given seven days before a race and it can be dangerous "if the painkilling effect is still taking place when the horse is racing." The Bauer case, opened after his close second to Viewed in the 2008 Melbourne Cup, comes to mind. The Australian rule says "a horse given any form of shockwave therapy shall be ineligible to race or take part in any trial in seven days following such treatment." Racing Victoria stewards found trainer Luca Cumani wasn't aware of the rule. No action was taken. Disappointing Mr O'Ceirin, the $1.60 favourite, could finish only sixth at Moonee Valley on Saturday and jockey Steven Arnold told stewards he may appreciate more give in the ground, which was rated dead.