Now Quality Road refuses to board plane
 

Looks like the horse is a real head case. Are there straight jackets for horses?

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...-will-van-home

Instead of vanning him back to NY. they should just send him right to south Fla. The starter ( Jeff Powell ) down there will get him to load correctly.

(From the owner,) Initially, the gate crew handled things what I perceived to be very properly, patting him on the head and neck and reassuring him. He already was agitated and hesitant and they tried to do things in a calm way. Then they went right away to the harsh stuff, like the blindfold. It went from not loading to dangerous pretty quickly.

Get a grip son, I think they should of grabbed both his ear and lip to drag his a s s in and then fined your butt for sending a green race horse to the Classic. How can you blame the gate crew!

This could very well be the owners fault. This horse had NO gate issues when running for Jimmy Jerkens.

I can't tell if this is sarcastic.

Folks - these are horses. I just watched a horse on TV scared to step into a small pond. They can be borderline nuts sometimes, much like a lot of people we converse with here!

I really only watch NY racing on a day-to-day basis and all I'll say about the whole thing is that there are usually a number of different things that the NY gate crew try to get an unruly horse in (walking them around, linking arms and pushing, or simply waiting for the horse to calm down) that the gate crew at SA really didn't try.

I, of course, have never tried to put a horse in the starting gate, so my opinion is incomplete, but it did seem like there were more things that could have been tried.

I also can understand that QR should have been schooled at SA but you can't simulate race conditions with a mare loading to his inside.

NT

If it were a dirt track, he would have walked in right away no doubt.

There are actually people on Facebook saying he is on cocaine. :zz:

Really?

face/palm

Teh stupid, it burns.

I really felt for the gate crew- talk about a no-win situation. They've got a very expensive animal absolutely freaking on them, and 13 other very expensive animals with the potential to start freaking any second. It's well and good for the barn manager to say, oh, they started out doing the right thing, petting him and reassuring him, but then just moved on to severe things too fast, but how long were they supposed to pet him at the expense of the other horses' nerves? And the gate can't scratch him themselves, can they? Even if they could, then they've got an angry owner and angry bettors to deal with. I thought they did the best they could in an impossible circumstance- one of the last horses to load freaking out right before the biggest race of the year.

Though I'd like to put that footage on my iphone so I can bring it up whenever a well-meaning friend says,"But isn't it mean to make horses run around in a circle?" and don't believe me when I tell them it's very hard to get a 1000 pound animal to do something he doesn't want to do.

(And then when they ask if he was on cocaine I will face/palm again.)

I'm tellin you all, it's PG's fault.

Look at the two horses he has hyped for months and how high his expectations were for the BC with these two horses.

First, Zensational didn't break from the gate well at all. It was like he was afraid to leave the gate and it cost him dearly.

I honestly believe that Quality Road saw Zensational's failed attempt at not running, and decided to take more drastic measures so as to not risk injury to himself or his reputation.

Think about it!

I don't understand the need to lead horses into the gates in numerical, double-file order. If getting them in is more an issue than keeping them in, shouldn't you load the troublesome horses first instead of keeping the rest of the horses loaded? On the other hand, if you have a horse who freaks if he is in for too long...then load he/she last.

Am I missing something?

I would think it becomes a fairness issue- horses can load great, but if they stand too long they can start to relax and get caught flat-footed at the break. So I imagine trainers would start claiming their horse has to be loaded near the end, in order to take advantage of a short wait before the gates open. But that's just a guess.

Morty would probably say he was afraid to board the plane because he was seated next to GenuineCrazyLady.

Now that she's back it's only fair that Morty is welcome. Right?

Tell them all the BC horses came back clean :tro: (Bloodhorse.com)

On second thought, they should of put that saddle back on and rode his a s s back to Belmont. I'm sure he would be well mannered and much fitter.:D

A current DRF.com article says the Clark is also under consideration...The pace there would be much softer and I could see him CRUSHING THEM if hes right. It would be a nice step into next year.

I really hope he goes to the Clark!

Sarcasim, a shot towards me, or honesty?

I hope Quality Road comes back as a 4yo. He's really starting to look like a what might have been type of horse.

He showed extreme talent in the Derby prep season - especially the Fountain of Youth - his performance in the Fountain of Youth was probably the single most impressive performance by any male horse this year...and perhaps any horse of any gender.

All the foot problems - he comes back and is insanely rushed into making the Travers. He gives a very solid account of himself twice at 10fs even though I believe a one-turn mile is certainly his best race.

He was so interesting in the Breeders Cup Classic because even though his running style was a terrible fit for that Pro-Ride ... his pedigree seemed great for turf/synthetic. And he's a gate scratch.

Jimmy Jerkens is the closest thing to an East Coast version of John Shirreffs. Both having seemingly impeccable reputations ... and suspiciously impressive stats.

Jimmy Jerkens has started 2,455 horses in his training career .. and his ROI is $2.01 ... he's run well enough for Pletcher though.

A couple days with Clinton Anderson or Chris Cox,and this horse would be all set to load and then some.

No I was being honest. :)

Most horses that dont load also act up in the gate which is in most cases more dangerous.

This horse should be finished for the year. Thinking that he will magically be cured by Bob Duncan in a week after driving cross-country is crazy.

So you didnt see them when they locked arms behind him and he was full on jack kicking with both hind legs! You didnt see the part where Gilly tried to pet and move him from side to side to get him to budge.
Please step in one day and just try and get a horse to go into the gate that doesnt want to go. If you want to blame someone blame Todd Pletcher for not having the horse schooled prior to the race.
Horses and I mean fully intact male horses most often times in the morning during schooling hours stand in the gate with mare's and filly's and geldings and other studs.
I suggest you watch the whole scene , this horse wasnt going in the gate , and when they finally got him in and he relized it he really went even more over the edge.
So who do you blame for the horse not getting on the plane , the professional horse haulers that are part of the crew or the groom that was with him?
This horse was out of his mind and from what I read this isnt the first time he has been horrible at the gate. The guys that are on this gate crew in So Cali are some of the best there are anywhere , they are horseman and they did the best they could with a bad situation.

A couple of days with Jay Slender and he would have gone in too , but Todd Pletcher didnt seem to think the horse needed it .

QR flat out had a nervous breakdown and now is dealing with the equine version of PTSD. I have respect for the NY gate crews, but I'm nervous about the 2 week turnaround for the Cigar Mile. I'm drawing a blank about the Euro that had to come to the US because he got banned for gate antics. They talked about him on tv. At what point can a horse get banned at one of our tracks?

:$:

When it kills or severely injures someone from the gate crew... Am I the only one who isn't shocked when an inbred 1100+lb, high strung caged animal has a nervous breakdown when paraded in front of 75k screaming people?

Also, I am surprised those PETA fools haven't went ape **** over QR's antics...

i agree.

Forunately a gate crew guy grabbed a reign as QR broke through the front of the gate . The crew did a good job . The horse needs time to recover .

Mathea Kelley photo per bloodhorse

Thought he was on his way already?


Quality Road
Your Comment:

Date: November 12, 2009
Track: SANTA ANITA PARK
Distance: Four Furlongs
Time: 48:60 Handily
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: All Weather Track
Rank: 5/18

The BH article said the plan was for him to leave on the cross-country van tonight. 36 hours non-stop is the first leg in a double box stall with the groom present. Makes sense they'd let him blow out this morning.

The opposite point of view would be that a stressful work (:48+ is a decent move) right on top of another stressful event (longer than normal ship by van no less) is potentially a recipe for disaster. Isn't there a chance he walks off the van with a fever?

Add on top of that any soundness issues probably wouldn't be detected before KY, not to mention the horse reportedly had lacerations sutured from the gate and plane mishaps, and you wonder what's the hurry.

Is the Cigar Mile this weekend?

Too bad it wasn't a gate drill...

I think you are referring to Spanish Moon and he is banned in GB not all of Europe

I knew it wouldn't be long before someone showed up with the "why don't you try to load a horse into the gate" routine.

I made it clear, I don't ride horses (thank goodness for them), I don't train horses, all I do is bet on horses. I've seen many, many horses act up at the gate before and I thought the gate crew could have done a few things differently. Perhaps the blame falls on Pletcher for not letting him school with that crew. I did think it was funny that Jerry Bailey had a few suggestions on what should be done once QR's initial buffoonery started and of course none of them were tried.

The member of the gate crew who's being applauded for grabbing the reins as QR started walking out of the gate blind-folded deserves a great bit of praise. However, QR being in that situation was incredibly dangerous and a poor decision on someone's part to let disaster almost strike.

NT

[quote=NTamm1215]I knew it wouldn't be long before someone showed up with the "why don't you try to load a horse into the gate" routine.

I made it clear, I don't ride horses (thank goodness for them), I don't train horses, all I do is bet on horses. I've seen many, many horses act up at the gate before and I thought the gate crew could have done a few things differently. Perhaps the blame falls on Pletcher for not letting him school with that crew. I did think it was funny that Jerry Bailey had a few suggestions on what should be done once QR's initial buffoonery started and of course none of them were tried.

The member of the gate crew who's being applauded for grabbing the reins as QR started walking out of the gate blind-folded deserves a great bit of praise. However, QR being in that situation was incredibly dangerous and a poor decision on someone's part to let disaster almost strike.

Id love to hear what you would have done . Pletcher has admitted that he only stood QR 3 times in between the Travers and the BC , now there is where something could have been done differently.

Any horse could break a fever after any ship.

Fit racehorses are not really good at standing patiently in 12 x 12 areas for a day and a half. They tend to destroy themselves.

Works far better if they have been exercised normally, and are a bit tired. Don't forget the horse was worked planning up to the effort of a race, but didn't get that race effort. He's probably climbing the walls a bit if he's that type.

Probably far less likely he walks off the van with a fever, as he can get his head down, and move around in a box; versus a plane ride where they are in crossties in a standing stall.

I would assume, from what has been published, that there may be a couple sutures in the horses upper front gum. That wouldn't interfer with bitting or eating.

If I had a horse with a traumatic gate incident (or trailering incident, or any scary and/or harmful incident whatsoever), I would try sooner, rather than later, to retrain and blot that incident out of the horses' mind, and get back to normal as quickly as possible. Virtually immediately would be best.

Horses think and memorize and imprint in their own equiney way, and it's not like dogs or cats or people.