Unless there was a danger to the participants because of the surface there should not be a delay in the races. Weather is part of the game. They didn't delay the Super Bowl because it was raining did they?

It's the "danger from the surface" part that some are championing.

What is your professional opinion on sloppy tracks? Do you base it upon the individual animal?

It is just too politically correct to talk of delaying the races because of rain. A few years ago they moved a grass stake at Tampa from Sat to Tuesday because of rain. Except it never rained, was sunny and 70.

How do you know if the weather wont get worse in another day? What if you delay it a week and the weather is worse then?

If there were a rash of breakdowns that occurred I could see where people may question the track. But of all the horses that you thought may not finish a race on Sat would you not have made GW 3/5 to be the one?

I would've said Bordonaro

he was 3/2

GW was out of his element on a completely foreign surface in a foreign land. It was a high risk decision and his management will have to live with that. Unfortunately GW cannot.

You really have to wonder what made the connections put this horse in this race. Really, the horse had no chance, what were they thinking?

A shorter price than Greg's Gold with the past tendon issues?

I thought Monmouth looked like a nice track....
 

I would make a trip down from Connecticut after seeing the place....

I don't know what the ramifications would be to postpone the event in the face of extreme weather... probably be a disaster from the standpoint of TV, people's travel, lodging.... I'm sure they had little choice but to hunker down and take it

I/L

They run at Aqueduct in 35 degree weather two days after a snow storm, the rain was nothing. Through the night Oceanport received no more than an inch of rain and by post time it was barely raining. It looked alot worse then it was.
I was there and I have to say Monmouth did a tremendous job hosting.

They did do a fine job hosting with one exception. After the Classic ended only the outer turnstiles were open for people to exit and the security then attempted to close the one on the far right.Made absolutely no sense.

Hell yeah.

I'll need to tidy up a bit...

I was livid.

They are proud of that turf course. It doesn't take much more than a light mist for them to take the races off.

9/5

I don't think you can compare what happens at Aqueduct to the Breeder's Cup.

I tend to agree.

On a normal dirt surface it might not have been so bad. I mean, i'd guess most if not all of the dirt runners at the BC had experienced the slop in one way or another before.

George tried the track out on Friday morning, but at that time it wasn't too bad. I think the track had only just decided to change it to 'muddy'. What worried me was to hear the vets say that once a track gets that sloppy, the horses are basically running on the hard base of the surface. That may or may not have led to the injury. We will never know.

GW had never experienced that before and because he was climbing to get away from the kickback, it probably meant his hooves were hitting the surface harded than they normally would.

I'm not convinced Aidan wanted to run him in the Classic at all, even weeks and months before the race. Aidan had never even mentioned the Classic and then all of a sudden he came out with the plan was to take George to the Classic as if he had been told that is what was happening by Magnier and Co. If the ownered want to run a horse, there is little a trainer can do to prevent thier wish.

I'm guessing here, but it seemed to me that Magnier wanted as many runners as possible at this year's BC. The Turf was never an option for DT until the last moment. It was as if someone tapped Aidan on the shoulder one day and said "they will BOTH run in America".

same with RD in cincy

Why not?
We get the same $10.80 on a 15k claimer in late January as we got for Curlin.
I don't think the BC horses should be treated different in poor conditions then a 15k claimer at Aqueduct.