Derby Trail Forums - Tom Chuckas on Preakness/TC Spacing

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- - Tom Chuckas on Preakness/TC Spacing (http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53961)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin (Post 978711)

The reason I'd like to see an extra week between each race is not so we would get more TC winners, although it would result in more TC winners. The reason I'd like to see the extra week is because I think the current TC schedule is too hard on the horses. I don't like a series of races that will often times ruin a horse forever. It only took the first two legs to end the careers of Bodemeister and I'll Have Another. Mine That Bird was never the same. Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex were finished. The list goes on and on. Sure there are occasionally horses that run great in all 3 races and come out of it relatively unscathed. But I think that is the exception to the rule. The trainers are well aware of this and that is why so many trainers drop out after the first leg, skip the middle leg, or skip the Belmont. If there was an extra week between races there would still be guys that would skip races but I think the percentage would drop a little bit. If you put an extra 2 weeks between races, I think the percentage would drop much more.

The bottom line to me is that the TC races under the current schedule have ruined a large percentage of the horses that have run well in all 3 races. I don't think it should be that way. Yes, the TC should be demanding, but not to the point where it ends so many careers.

Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex and Bodemeister all had injuries that would have healed and allowed them to come back to racing. We know why they were retired. I'll Have Another as well. Mine That Bird was only good for 2 weeks in his whole career anyway. His post TC races were still far better than his Pre TC races.

Let's be honest here the TC ends careers of the best horses because of the low bar required to become a hot stallion prospect these days.

It takes an exceptional horse to win the Triple Crown because while they may not necessarily be great horses they have to be at the very least very good and more importantly very sound, these are the horses that we should be excited to see adding to the gene pool, not the brilliant but fragile horses we have been breeding the last 30 years, there are lots of great horses that endured the Triple Crown trail and still went on to even more impressive careers , including the last two Triple Crown winners, both had extraordinary 4 year old campaigns, I personally don't want to see a Triple Crown winner every 3 years or so, the accomplishment is special because of how hard it is !!!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell (Post 979099)

I'll Have Another had a bowed tendon. Afleet Alex had a condylar fracture. Can horses like these possibly come back from such injuries. It is possible but the chances of them ever being the same horse are not good. I Want Revenge eventually made it back and he wasn't anything close to the same horse. If that is your definition of being able to come back again, then I agree with you. You can try to bring practically any horse back. But if a horse has a serious injury, is worth $15 million, and is 50/50 at best to ever be the same horse, it doesn't make much sense to try to come back. They actually did try to bring Afleet Alex back and he got hurt again.

Mine That Bird was a very good horse as a 2 year old. I believe he won about 3 or 4 races in a row including a couple of stakes races.

Anyway, this whole argument has strayed from my original point. My original point was that having these 3 TC races in 5 weeks is extremely hard on the horses. It knocks them out and puts them at a much higher risk for injury than if these races were spaced further apart. If you talk to any of these guys (Pletcher, Baffert, etc.) who have run in these races on a regular basis, they will all tell you the same thing. I don't remember the exact quote but someone was saying that Baffert was quoted as saying that after the TC when you get to the barn and you look at your horse, you hardly even recognize the horse because he is so skinny and so knocked out.