How about this.......
 

Simply put, if it came down to Graded Earnings instead of some bs nomination fee, there would be no controversy here.

I haven't seen this much hatred involving a Preakness since the war of words between Woody Stephens and Gene Klein/Gary Stevens in 1988. Stephens called Gary a "stupid boy." Klein said Stephens belonged in the "Hall of Shame." Woody responded by calling Klein "crying Klein." DWL kept his mouth shut.

I know many here will not share this sentiment, but isn't it their job to give their horse the best chance of winning the race? Wouldnt doing whats better for the horse to win the 2nd jewel of the Triple Crown trump doing whats best for the sport/spectator? If entering a hopeless horse (Indy Express) to prevent the main threat (Rachel ALexander) from getting to the gate gives the horse the best chance to win the Preakness, they'd be idiots to not at least entertain the thought. Chicken$hit move or not, it certainly lies within the bounds of legality. (entering another horse to prevent another talent-superior horse from getting to the gate)

Is this move that different from entering a rabbit? I understand that rabbits, for the most part, dont prevent other win-eligible horses from entering, that they just throw a curveball into the race via pace scenarios.

The name of the game is to win the big races and to give your horse the best possible chance to win ced big races. If you rob the spectators/fans of the best possible matchup in doing so, so be it. I'm sure the fans would understand the dilemna a whole lot better if they were in Allen's shoes.

disclaimer:: I don't necessarily think that it's the right move from a sportsmanship standpoint, but I certainly would mull the idea over. Being that you have a healthy and talented enough horse to get the job done, the idea is to win the race by any legal means necessary, riiiight?.

May not be any super colts (or 'roid-fueled freaks like Curlin or Big Brownroid) in this year's Preakness field ... but it's still gunna be a big class jump for the filly.

BIG difference going from smallish fields of overmatched fillies to a full field of males ... and in a longer contest, no less.

Not sayin she doesn't have a shot to win the race ... just that there could be a big jump in injury risk too.



By the way, the last filly to run in the Preakness, Baffy's Excellent Meeting in '99, pulled up and didn't finish the contest...


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/colum...sportCat=horse

A good horse can overcome a pace scenario, but if owners conspire to keep a horse out by abusing the rules...

As EA sports would say, "If it's in the game, it's IN the game". Are they breaking the rules? or just abusing them?

He's run 9 times and has 1 second and 1 third.

The 2nd place finish was at Remington Park.

people enter rabbits to ensure a quick pace, not to keep a horse from even entering a race. apples vs oranges imo. if they think they have the best horse, run him and let's see. but this cowardly crap of entering a horse just to scratch, with no intention of running him? if it works, and RA doesn't run-then i would call a win by MTB not only a second miracle, but a hollow victory. not a sportsmanlike move at all. big difference between helping your own horse run his race and not letting another run at all.

so? that's one horse. now tell me how every other filly who entered over the years did? fillies run past 1 3/16 fairly often. i doubt rachel will fold like a cheap tent when/if she makes the attempt.
i just want to see her get to try. if she can't do it, we'll know.

lol
they need to re-do the entry rules up there. only three horses currently on the preakness list have a win in their last start-and now they're going to run this guy rather than a gr 1 winner? this is sick.

Allen told the NY Times tonight that he is not going to run Indy anymore.

good!
i wonder if some members of the md jockey club called him and asked him to knock it off? they can't have been thrilled at the prospect of having a maiden rather than a top notch filly who's thought by many to be the best 3 yo currently running.

I don't think any of them said they would enter a horse and then scratch it. Declan's Harbor's post I agree with, it IS like entering a rabbit, which obviously excludes others even if it's not the stated purpose. I personally don't like the use of rabbits anywhere, it's unfair to the rabbit, if nothing else.

i was assuming they would enter other horses just to keep her out of the gate, but not run them-surely they weren't actually going to run another horse vs mine that bird? lol that would have been a kick in the pants if their add-in beat the prospective tc winner!!

i'd think for the most part, entering a rabbit won't necessarily oversubscribe a race. and yes, it can hurt a sure front-runner-but the horses all still have a shot rather than what would have happened here, a horse not even able to enter.

This is ridiculous.
If they do conspire to keep her out, I hope Mine that bird and POTN both run up the track along with the other pigs they enter.
I'm no fan of Jess Jackson, but the horse deserves to run.

The way NBC is hyping the race, they sure want her to run.

My $ is on her being in the gate come Saturday

Who knows, but perhaps Allen is starting to realize his 10 minutes of fame would have been better spent trying to get his horse's face on a bottle of beer.

Last 3 beyers: 62 71 63......Of course we know know that Beyers mean nothing. :rolleyes: A horse with a lifetime top of 81 just won the Derby.:wf

What? Like missing Guadalcanal try to break his maiden??

I think it's funny how they already have RA as the main attraction in the Preakness for their commercial...... I know she will be the main attraction, but wait til we see if she makes it or not.

On another note, I'm already trying to get an idea of my bets for the preakness and I'm between placing a nice size win bet on RA, or playing a bunch of exotics and use her in 2nd and 3rd.

http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/sho...&postcount=156

I didn't want to be right about this, especially in this absolutely pathetic circumstance.

I was right before you were right...I said Mine That Bird had unfavorable connections, so there! :p

HA HA HA :p

Yes.

Is it wrong for me to wish for Indy Express to run out of gas and impede Mine That Bird ruining his chance to win the Preakness???

just thinking there should be more involved on who gets to enter than basing it purely on who is tc nominated. thousands of horses get nominated every year-but when it comes down to it, i think a grade one performer should get precedence over a hors that was nominated, but hasn't actually done anything. why would a horse luv gov deserve an entry over the oaks winner?

i'm thinking that some folks may have made some calls to make sure she'd be there. funny that the derby winners were so coy about going to md after their derby win, and now look at them.

excerpt from a drf article:


Earlier in the day, Zayat said he had received a call from Allen, who suggested that Allen and Zayat each enter a second horse. Allen told HRTV he planned on entering the 0-for-9 maiden Indy Express in the race.

When asked about the uproar that plan might create if it meant keeping out Rachel Alexandra, Allen said, "I don't think we caused the uproar. I think that this filly being bought and them supplementing her into this race caused the uproar."


i disagree about who caused the uproar. had allen gotten a hefty offer for his horse, he may well have sold MTB-can't help but wonder what kind of offers he'd be entertaining if the colt were intact. jackson did nothing wrong in buying the filly, and did what many wanted when he subsequently announced a try at the preakness. jackson isn't my favorite person, and certainly neither is asmussen, but we get to see what we too often don't anymore-a top filly facing off vs colts. due to the fact that a couple of fillies had their life end too soon while facing off vs males, some folks have decided that any racing outside the distaff ranks would be an automatic kiss of death---an absoutely ridiculous assumption. but perception is reality i suppose...

I don't know if there is, but sometime around Rags' Belmont I read a really interesting article about the physiological advantages of colts vs. fillies. I wish I could remember where I saw it and post the link, but I remember the thrust of the article being that there was no real advantage for colts at short distances (six furlongs and less) and at long ones (past a mile and a quarter) but that the males had an advantage for the middle distances, with the advantage peaking at a mile and a quarter.

I looked for the article, but no luck so far. However, I did find this, ahem, very "interesting" look at Rags' Belmont victory from a Biblical standpoint.

http://www.biblenews1.com/history7/20070609filly.htm

Apparently Christians aren't getting enough sodium in their diets and Rags to Riches is the Whore of Babylon. Or something like that. I was a little confused by the end of the article.

:zz: I'm more than a little confused by that "article".

the Preakness is "THE PEOPLE'S RACE"

"THE PEOPLE'S PARTY"

she gonna run!!! :$::$:

http://cristblog.drf.com/files/indyexpress.pdf

Nice piece by Crist outlining the patheticness of these jokers. I knew I recognized the name Indy Express- I bet him on Apr 10th at LS moving back to the turf and he ran like the no talent bum he is.

As much as Jackson/Asshead's purchasing of RA makes her hard to root for, this is chickenshit.

So Mark Allen is the first imbecile to own a race horse...really? First of all he did not invent the TC nominating system. He had nothing at all to do with that. Perhaps he did in all your wild imaginations, but my guess is that TC nominating system was in place before he ever became involved with a TC horse. Mark Allen did not purchase a non-nominated TC horse for 10 million dollars. He did not do that. He saw his 50-1 no chance horse win the Ky Derby with by all accounts a great ride by his jockey. In fact, it was his jockey who got all the credit and his horse pretty much zero credit. A couple days after the Derby, his jockey who fit well on his Ky Derby horse by all credible evidence tells him he is off the horse in the Preakness. A pretty much unprecedented move in the last 65 years of TC horse racing...a Derby winning Jockey opting off the horse for the Preakness to ride another.

I don't know this guy from Adam, by all accounts he is a complete jerk and his moves here seem a bit ridiculous without question. But pardon me for feeling a bit sorry for the guy. A jockey gives his horse the ride of his life in a completely different style from all his other races, and is informed he will not ride him in the Preakness...the only horse in the world with a chance at a TC will not have the jockey who gave him a perfect ride. Again, pardon me for pretty much understanding the guys desperation. The rules allowed him the chance to keep his jockey, and he looked into it. I see this as exactly the same as entering a rabbit. You're acting WITHIN the rules to give your horse an advantage.

This is a complete non story. Zayat is a big boy and can do whatever the heck he wants. He is the one who went public with all this stuff...not Allen. Jackson is the one who bought the 10 million dollar non-TC nominated horse...not Allen. Jerk or not, the owners of Mine That Bird losing their Ky Derby winning jockey is simply not a common occurrence. They went a bit nuts...big deal.

This article is unreal. I wonder if he does picks like the wizard, or gods picks, or something like that.

Mark Allen press release relenting on additional entry...

For immediate release (Sunday, May 10, 1015 p.m.)

Indy Express out of Preakness

Mark Allen, owner of the 135th Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, will not enter Indy Express in the 2009 Preakness Stakes.

Early this morning Allen was delivered a message to contact another owner “Our conversation consisted of congratulating me on our win in the Derby and talking about a rematch, wanting a chance to hook us on a fast surface. We laughed and joked about what a race that would be,” said Allen.

“When it comes to Rachel Alexandra, I personally don’t think any filly should be in a race against colts at this stage of their careers. I don’t believe in running fillies against the colts. But Rachel Alexandra is a superior filly and could be the exception. Mr. Jackson has a great trainer in Steve Asmussen and I’m sure they will make the right decision and Lord help us all if she does get in.”

“And yes, it’s true that I would like to have my jockey back. Calvin Borel is great and did a great job for us. I also respect him and I completely understand his love for Rachel Alexandra. If the filly gets in we have a commitment from Mike Smith. We have a lot of confidence in Mike, he’s from our part of the country and he’s got some Cowboy in him too, I’ve seen his boots,” said Allen.

“Additionally, my decision to enter Indy Express in the Preakness was strictly business but after consulting with my Dad and Doc Blach, I have decided to withdraw Indy Express to prevent any further miss understandings. They’re advice to me was just to do what’s right, because arrogance and greed isn’t right. Indy Express is a good colt and showing a lot of potential. I’ll just have to look forward to running him later on down the road. The bottom-line for me is that we came here to race and enjoy our win here in Louisville. So, we’ll meet everyone in Baltimore, ready to run,” said Allen.

jocks leave horses for others all the time. in this case, the owner went overboard about it. most just call other short guys til they get a rider. it's the first time in 30-odd years of watching racing that i've seen someone actually attempt to keep another horse out of the gate so they can keep their jock.
running a rabbit is to help out your second horse, not to keep another completely out of the race. there absolutely is a difference. this isn't a matter of may the best horse win regardless of race tactics, this is may the best horse not even be entered.
i'm glad it's all settled now.
and you mentioned about jackson buying a horse for the preakness--allen also dug deep to buy MTB. not as deep, but they both did the same thing.

Quote:

Additionally, my decision to enter Indy Express in the Preakness was strictly business but after consulting with my Dad and Doc Blach, I have decided to withdraw Indy Express to prevent any further miss understandings.

Ah yes.. Miss Understanding (sic), always the fall person...

lol
what an article...


"The victory of the filly in the Belmont Stakes symbolizes the US military with females in the ranks in the Iraq War. The women may be very brave, but they do not belong in combat. The demasculinizing of US society is due to the rise of the Prostitute of Babylon, which is the result of the lack of salt in Christians in the Church."

yeah, we get it. females are inferior, when they accomplish anything-it's always the beginning of the end.

:D either her or that wench miss calculation.