Bless You George Washington...
 

i loved this horse.

last year when he was entered in the b.c. i thought he would be in the turf division. i thought he would win that race easily. but they put him in the classic and he came up in 7th place.

you would have thought they would have learned something. english turf horses don't do dirt!

instead they enter him again in the classic after retiring him!
...f'n unbelievable!!!

what dissappointed me most was that they had the chance to reconsider this ill fated move. when they saw the conditions of the track they could have scratched him. when the jockey went to the whip on the backstretched he could have pulled him up and trotted him home to retirement.

instead he kept pushing him to his ultimate demise.

this horse was a champion and deserved a better place to leave this earth than the mud at monmouth park.

this event marred what ever was left of a dismal,rainy day. whats worse is it did'nt have to happen.

new rule: all turf horses must have at least 2 grade 1 races on DIRT to enter the classic.

Well Spoken.............a Sad Loss For The Animal World.....greed...

thank you,,,

Horses who've won the BC with less than 2 career Grade 1 wins coming into the race.

1984: Wild Again
1986: Skywalker
1991: Black Tie Affair
1993: Arcangues
1994: Concern
1996: Alphabet Soup
1998: Awesome Again
1999: Cat Thief
2000: Tiznow
2002: Volponi
2003: Pleasantly Perfect

11 of them would have been excluded by this ever so ingenuis rule.

Arcangues was a european too so he never raced on dirt before.

oh boy, the board policemen have stepped in and righted another wrong. bravo. another over reaction to an emotional throw-away line by someone who was obviously shaken up by the demise of one of racings stars.

no the board went into severe decline when certain smug people like yourself decided to become the official arbiters for all board content. it is a disservice to run around daily labeling others opinions as ridiculous or a joke. get off your high horse.

you especially who went to extraordinary lengths to defend the rights of Morty who never made a single post that wasn't a joke or ridiculous, chastising other who "didn't get it", it would seem that you speak from both sides of your mouth. we were told over and over that we should have tolerance and acceptance for Morty, but everyone else that you disagree with needs to get a grip and is bringing down the board?

it is a painful experience to lose a horse, god knows last years bc was painful for me after the distaff.
but to suggest that anyone is at fault imo is an over-reaction. had coolmore known going in that this would happen, do you really think they'd have run george?! hell no.
altho the winning percentage of euros on the dirt is low, who can forget the awesome performances by some of those travellers in defeat?
as for the jock going to the whip, that's what jockeys do. sometimes horses pick up when all is lost; who hasn't come here or elsewhere after a horse is seemingly done, only to awaken and put on a rush, and talked about that amazing performance?? again, if anyone had as much foresight as hindsight, this would not have occurred.
if you really feel that the human beings in this sport are that brutal and uncaring, perhaps you should leave the sport, and become an advocate to save these beautiful animals from the cruelty and greed. i'll continue however to be a fan, to enjoy the thrill of watching these beauties in action, and i will continue to feel pain for those who are lost.
but i will not point fingers, as to point blame for the running of a racehorse to me is ridiculous. unless this horse was shown to be unsound and unfit for racing, you are doing coolmore a disservice.

New Rule: There's a god damn search button. Use it.

11 of them would have been excluded by this ever so ingenuis rule.

Anything that would have stopped Volponi, Arcangues, Concern, and Alphabet Soup from being BC Classic winners can't be all bad.

Then again, the fact that such horses can win on racing's alleged "biggest day", just underline's the fact that the BC races are often no more important than any other top level race in the country.

why, you blasphemer, you! ;)

i wish everyone would understand that....especially the announcers on espn who come back from commercial talking about 'another championship sewn up by so and so' after they win. they need to change the name back to breeders cup, or festival, or anything other than 'world championships'.

jambalay was injured, grasshopper didn't win anything to get in. he lost the super derby to going ballistic

Maybe It's because I'm still waking up, but could you explain what you mean by this post. I'm really trying to understand. Thanks.

jambalaya isn't retired yet. they're giving him 90 days, and then reexamine. not supposed to be career threatening tho.

you missed the point...
 

i am speaking of european turf horses winning on US dirt tracks.

as far as i know, most if not all euro racing is on grass. those so-called tracks are in fields that are not level.

you can also see that they run in the opposite direction which can cauyse problems when they come to the US. this was evident in a race yesterday when 3 horses blew the far turn.

if the euros want to run here they should should try to get some dirt tracks and run in the other direction.

with only about 20 - 30 people on this board most of the time you have to take what you can get.

I hear ya.

However, your new rule was awful.

If the BC Classic was restricted to multiple Grade 1 winners on dirt - in many years you'd have a four or five horse field running for a $5 million purse.

You'll actually run the risk of having more horses breakdown that way. Because the connections of a long in the tooth or sore horse who won a pair of Grade 1's in the past....they will do everything possible to make a race against three or four opponets that carries a $5,000,000 purse.

We do have left-handed tracks as well, you know?

However, we only have once track in England that is as tight (possibly tighter) than the tracks you have in the US.

Four of the five synthetic tracks in Britain and Ireland are left-handed.

You cant legislate out breakdowns with rules...

Though I feel remorse for the groom and lads connected to the horse I think it is especially tragic when a top horse breaks down in a race where they had no chance.

Plus you'd have some completely off form older geldings entering the race to try and get fifth cause they had 2 G1 wins earlier in their career. Or horses like Silver Wagon who have no business going 10 furlongs.

Well, let's take a look if this highly amusing rule would have been in place for Saturday's BC Classic.

Of the field of nine - Any Given Saturday (one Grade 1 dirt wins) Hard Spun (one Grade 1 dirt win) Awesome Gem (0 Grade 1 dirt wins) Diamond Stripes (0 Grade 1 dirt wins) George Washington (0 Grade 1 dirt wins) - would all be excluding from running.

That leaves us with a four horse field for the Breeders Cup Classic consisting of.....Tiago (2 Grade 1 wins) Curlin (2 Grade 1 wins) Lawyer Ron (2 Grade 1 wins) and Street Sense (3 Grade 1 wins)

How would trainers have planned for it?

You mean they would have actually tried winning Grade 1 races?

This might be your best post yet!

Even last year I thought it was a wrong move from his connections to enter GW in the classic. This year the decision to bring him back to compete with this strong field was even worst because in addition to all this, the horse never ran in the slop in the pass, so I couldn't understand what the connections were thinking. To me clearly they never considered what was the best for the horse, they just used him as a betting tool.
Note: Bobby Frankel was not present yesterday at MTH, because he didn't feel in good spirit because his dog is very sick with cancer. He prefered stay in So. California with his dog in the hospital. That's love to an animal.

Or a good excuse not to go...

He still gets paid.

They didn't use this horse as a "betting tool" in any sense of the word. I reckon the folks around Ballydoyle along with many in England and Ireland thought about as much of George Washington as all of the sap-heads over here thought of Barbaro.

They loved this horse dearly, and your analysis is way off. Without a doubt they thought he could win this race and be declared a champion. Aidan O'Brien isn't an idiot.

Maybe Barbaro broke down as well because he was a "true turf horse..."

Pure rubbish, all of this ****.

Racehorses break down, and the Ballydoyle team loved him just as much as anyone else loves any horse.

I see Super Boardman swooped down and scolded you. Too funny.

I agree...the surface had nothing to do with his demise....the connections gave up on him and kept throwing him to the wolves...very often....that was the problem.

These whiney "oh the poor horsie" threads are a bit much....they should keep them all in one area so we dont have to read em.

Champion of what?

I'd guess that it wasn't Aidans choice to run

Ya know, it's not like George Washington was beaten 50 lengths or eased when he ran in the Classic last year. As a 3yo trying dirt for the first time and having never run more than a mile before, he made a nice middle move before flattening out and finished 6th beaten 7 lenghts - running a 106 Beyer. He beat more than half the field and finished 3 1/2 lengths behind Premium Tap who would have been an elite handicap horse this year if he remained in the US. That 106 Beyer he ran last year was right in the same ballpark as what Street Sense and Tiago had run this summer/fall - and he easily could have improved on that with the experience and maturity.

I'm not saying I liked him to win, but running him back as a 4 year old with some maturity, dirt experience, and a couple of 10 furlong races under his belt certainly wasn't the most outlandish entry you'll ever see.

What happened was horrible but it's not like the owners were running Rick's Natural Star or some 10 claimer who didn't belong in the race to begin with.

He was getting worse on turf. . .

A two time European champion turf miler who wins the Breeders Cup Classic on dirt would be considered a bit of a champion in my book.

And I'd guess you were wrong, I think he wanted to run the horse.

I'm not convinced that Aidan wanted to run him here, either. He was quoted a few weeks before saying that George would go for the Champion Stakes (at Newmarket the weekend before), which looked like a Gr1 he could win, and judging by the result, a Gr1 he would have won.

It was only at the last moment that he was not declared in that race and then a press release said that GW was going for the Classic.

Aidan isn't the sort of person to change his mind. He has a plan for all of his horses and tries to work to that plan as close as possible. I would be very surprised if it was his decision to run him at Monmouth, especially in the Classic. He is employed by the Coolmore bosses, i quite think they made the decision, not Aidan..... and there is a chance that it was against Aidan's choice.

I quite think that was the same with Dylan Thomas. There was never ANY talk of running in the BC Turf after they said he's run in the Arc. I remember having this conversation with someone a month or two ago. I said if they ran in the Arc, they wouldn't go to the BC, not when there is only 20 days inbetween. Even right before the Arc they said America wasn't really on the agenda. They said if he won the Arc (we all know he did) that would be the end for him. If he didn't win, they would "consider" the BC for him. So, naturally, after he won i just thought he had been retired. Yet about three days later they had confirmed him for the BC Turf. The decision seemed to come right out of the blue.

My guess would be that John Magnier wanted as many runners as possible for the BC this year.

Judging from news reports after George's tragic injury, there were no words between O'Brien and Magnier. Aidan (along with family) left Monmouth very quickly after the incident.