What's wrong with this picture?
 

Why did I just assume he was off on a farm somewhere living the good life?


Penn National - February 11, 2011

Race 6 - 7:04 PM Exacta / Trifecta /2nd Half of Mid Double / Superfecta / Pick 4 (Races 6-7-8-9)
CLAIMING $4,000

Purse $12,000. (plus Up To 40% Pabf) For Four Year Olds And Upward Which Have Not Won Two Races Since August 11. Weight, 122 Lbs. Non-winners of a race at a mile or over since January 11 Allowed 3 Lbs. Claiming Price $4,000 (Races where entered for $3,500 or less not considered in eligibility). One Mile.
P# PP Horse Virtual
Stable A/S Med Claim $ Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L

1 1 Devil Approved It (KY) 5/G L $4,000 K Santiago 1127 M L Rojas 4/1
SCR Awesome Rubiano (FL) -------------------------------------Scratched-------------------------------------
3 3 Tori Light (FL) 9/G L $4,000 M Chaves 119 R Servideo 30/1
4 4 Bleniem (ON) 7/G L $4,000 A Salgado 119 B L Kulp 8/1
5 5 Trippedoutofadream (FL) 6/G L $4,000 M Rispoli 1157 H T O'Hern 6/1
6 6 Rovic's Wealth (KY) 7/G L $4,000 W T Cloninger, Jr. 119 J D Crumley 6/1
7 7 Wave Me By (FL) 4/G L $4,000 W Corujo 1127 M A Miller 15/1
8 8 Ball Four (KY) 10/G L $4,000 W P Otero 119 D Balsamo 5/2
9 9 Marty's Hunch (PA) 7/G L $4,000 R Montanez 1145 B M Kravets 6/1
10 10 Balian (PA) 6/G L $4,000 D G Whitney 119 B M Kravets 15/1


Owners: 1 - Wanderers Stable; 3 - Zanek Stable; 4 - Brandon L. Kulp; 5 - Renpher Stable; 6 - Joseph E. Besecker; 7 - Rossi Racing; 8 - Bruce Golden Racing; 9 - Stevark Stable, Inc.; 10 - Rodney Chronister

Breeders: 1 - Liberation Farm & Fiona Craig; 3 - Robert Bakerman; 4 - Eugene Melnyk; 5 - Karen Silva; 6 - Robert Mondun & Vickie Mondun; 7 - Gilbert G. Campbell; 8 - B. D. Gibbs Farm, LLC & Grand Slam FarmLLC; 9 - Castle Rock Farm; 10 - Mer-Lyn Farms, LLC

http://www.pedigreequery.com/ball+four2


Owner: Bruce Golden Racing
Breeder: B. D. Gibbs Farm, LLC & Grand Slam Farm LLC
State Bred: KY
Winnings: 30 Starts: 8 - 3 - 4, $723,270

At 4: 2nd Kentucky Cup Classic (G2,9F)
At 5: Won Kentucky Cup Classic (G2,9F), Tejano Run S. (TP,9F); 2nd Fayette S. (G3,9F)
At 6: 2nd San Antonio H. (G2,9F)
At 7: Won Fayette S. (G3,9F); 3rd Native Diver H. (G3,9F)
At 8: Won Mervyn LeRoy H. (G2,8.5F)

You think he should be in for 5k?

He's Ball Four for God sake!:confused: :(

This is depressing.

Not sure I see anything wrong with the picture. 30 starts in 10 years is as light as it gets, horse still has some run in him apparently - he's installed as the m/l favorite....... What's the fuss?

The fuss is that 4k seems crazy for him and honestly some of my personal fuss is I'm having Mr. Umphrey flashbacks now.

He was in the Met Mile. The Met Mile!

Rabbit or not he deserved better than to die on a track somewhere in Pennsylvania running for a few thousand dollars.

I just get really sad when I see horses who had been at a certain level sink this far.

It's my problem and it's reality... it can be a brutal sport on many levels.

Doesn't mean I have to go silently into the night and accept these things without feeling like someone has a knife in my heart.

Okay that was a little overboard but you know what I mean.

He is a race horse he was bred to race not eat hay and oats and be a pet. Apparently he is still running ok if he wins he will make an owner 6k a trainer and jock 600 a piece and a vet will have to shot him up again. Basically he is a small business, because 6 years ago he was way faster changes everything? It's not like he is in a kill pen he is feed 14qts a day and cared for what do you desire for him a cabana in St Lucia?

opt 65k claimers at Tampa bay ran for 22k purse today and none of those horses were for sale for under 30 40k?

Sorry Gooey, I admire your sensibilities but I was simply reacting to the trhead title.

I don't see anything "wrong with this picture." He is a late developing, lightly raced 10 year old that is in at a level that anyone dreadfully concerned for his well being can easily obtain from the claiming box.

My guess is that he can/still wants to run (as evidenced by his m/l) and the owners feel he'd rather compete than rot away on the farm.

I'm sorry I don't read any more into it than that. Just my opinion.

No.

This wuld be closer to where I am, so...

http://www.mauirealestate.net/maui_homes.html

* * *

I know, Rudy... were not twins * . We don't need to have the same opinion. :)



* (Or are we?). :D

edit - He won. :)

http://www.equibase.com/static/chart...021111USA6.pdf

After Equine Medical is done with Ball Four at Penn Nat he thinks he is Maui smoking ganga.. Maybe Juan Carlos claims him and takes him to Philly and you will see his return to glory?

You have some races where horses are finishing their last quarter in 30+. He'll be competitive.

FL breds ran for 22k. The rest of them ran for 18k.

although i can understand where you're coming from for the most part, i'm not so sure about this line.

How do they get away with offering such horrible pots and why? Why would anyone race claimers on dirt at TB. I get the mdn turf races and how insignificant the purses are if you have to have turf but claimer on dirt WTF? 800 bucks gets your horse to FG, Oak, Philly, NY even Penn. People like racing for 8000 purse instead of 15-25k all for a 800 dollar ride to somewhere

The main reason is that the horseman organization there is run by clowns who want to keep purses depressed so that the place wont be more attractive for guys with better horses. If you are from Suffolk Downs you need someplace to go in the Winter. 20% of the horses that race there are training in Ocala and have to run somewhere. Some of the more established outfits use the place to winter like Proctor and have just enough bad maidens and turf horses to run to keep their stall allotment.

There are enough struggling and broke outfits there that need to run as much as possible and they keep the field size up. I quit running there much a few years ago because blowing conditions for cheap pots is counter productive in regards to the fiscal health of your horse operation. Look at Prospect Knight at Philly today. He has made 30k since late October. Had we shipped to Tampa he would have made 12k running in the same conditions. That is the difference between breaking even or making a few dollars and losing money.

Ashtyn Too is running a mdn 25 @ Tampa in the third race today.

He's a NY bred that set pace and faded going a mile on the turf at first asking - puts up a 40 bsf for the effort.

I don't know the trainer (she has 49 starts last year, this is her 6th start this year.) but it appears to be a family deal.

Point is, he's in for a 14K purse(with an ok shot at it), cutting back to 7/8th's and going to the dirt, when he would certainly fit on the inner in a state bred mdn35 for over double the money.

Allison Hassig would be a would be a good one to ask "Why run here?"

It doesn't seem to make much sense.

The first time I attended a live, parimutuel horse race was at Waterford Park (aka Mountaineer) on July 4, 1970. In one of the claiming races (there were only two levels there in those days - $1200 and $1500) was an 8yo gelding whose whole presence - build, conformation, the way he carried himself - argued that he was a breed apart from the others in the field. And so he was; he was Knight's Plume, a son of Round Table from Leallah, by Nasrullah, and a minor SW in his younger days. Three of his half-brothers (all stakes horses) became classic sires, or at least the sire of SWs, around the world, but gelding Knight's Plume kept on racing, eventually winning 22 of 88 starts. Don't know whatever happened to him after that. There were fewer horses around in those days - 20-30 foal crops for stallions, Northern tracks didn't run in the winter - and since he was sound he may have found a second career. One hopes so.

Okay which part?

I loved Mr. Umphrey but there's no other reason he ran in the Met Mile... not that I can see.

He did his job there... he had run his own races but was used as the rabbit for both Silver Wagon and for Diamond Stripes.

As far as where and how he died... I still have the email from his trainer.

(God it's sad).

He died in February of last year, at Philly, running for a tag (7k).

So I'm not arguing here at all just asking what part of that line are you questioning?

Confused...

my mistake, mmsc. i was thinking you meant that ball four was sure to die since he'd sunk to a low level.

That's okay. I was really afraid of that happening so you weren't mistaken.

Really so happy he won yesterday!

All better. :D

Trying to get him to Old Friends. :)

http://www.facebook.com/#!/note.php?...&id=1076543440

Donations can be mailed to: (please make a note on either that it is for Ball Four)



Please make checks out to "Old Friends" and mail to:

Old Friends, Inc.

1841 Paynes Depot Rd.

Georgetown, KY 40324



Or Paypal to: michael@oldfriendsequine.org

Oh that's great!

Thanks for posting this. :)

Shouldn't we be looking to retire all the horse in that race? I mean he won so arent the losers behind him better candiates. What are you saving him from the winners circle?

Sightseek... am thinking perhaps it's time for us to retire Freddy.

What do ya think... start a fund?

You really think the horse needs to be retired off a win and if so why arent you worried about the horses that finished behind him. Because this horse earned X dollars qualifies him for an earlier trip to the retirement home? BTW what are the qualifications? Is it money earned? Graded races you were a rabbit in?

I know you're not trying to start a problem with me, Federico... just so you know that I know that.

I'll try to answer.

Should he be retired? I have no idea. I was shocked to seem him entered here. That's the reason for the thread.

Now that he won? Who knows... BUT if there's a fund that's set up to help him damned right I'm for it.

The other horses...

This is silly and it all goes without saying.

You know, anyone who reads the waiting for news on and angels threads knows, there is no discrimination on either. It doesn't matter if it's a G1 winner or a claimer at Sunland... the people who post on either or both do so for any horse.

I posted a link on another thread but will repeat myself...

http://oldfriendsblog.wordpress.com/

... the point being it needs to start somewhere... the point being that any little act of kindness helps.

I wish every race horse had a guardinan angel.

The best that can happen for now is that, for whatever reason, one by one, some are given a chance at a decent life after retirement.

You know all of this...

It's too bad that only occassionally one comes along and gets attention and thankfully something is done. For every one who knows where the other how ever many hundreds / thousands end up.

In order to try to have balance in life though you need to start somewhere. You need to see where it is unbalanced and try to change it little by little so that's what this is about...

Maybe some day any horse who had ever been a stakes horse will automatically be protected and the ones at lower levels will be focused upon.

For now this is the reality... people noticing something simultaneously and collectively about a horse like Ball Four.

It's not much and it's not enough but it's a start. It's something. Maybe it's unfair but the world is unfair and so you've got to search for the good and keep finding it cause it's always there somewhere. :)

This was excellent. :)

It was a nice post MMSC, but allow me to try and better put what Freddy was trying to say.

If Ball Four is still relatively sound (since we don't know for sure let's assume he is) and if he still wants to compete, which based on his last two races he does, the level he is at shouldn't matter. If the idea that the level is beneath him, than the level should be beneath everyone in the field. He ran for 5k last year at Monmouth and no one seemed to notice or care. This is the level he is competitive now.

I don't think anyone wants to see a horse injured, but if every indication is that the horse is okay, than let him run. I could see objecting if he was finishing up the track, but he isn't. I hope he lives the good life when his connections decide to retire him. But until then, why not let him do what he was bred to do.

Point taken, Hossy.

(Thanks, Sighty).

Ball Four is making money for people and winning. Two things that are a lot more productive then eating hay in a field growing old fast. The point of racing a horse is winning and finding spots were they can win. The thread is titled What is wrong with this picture? The answer is NOTHING.

Your kindness is wonderful. I just wonder way you dont contact the last place finisher owners and help them out instead of Ball Four?

The question is What is wrong with you?

The horses in question are racing at the lowest level in racing.
95% of them have physical infirmaties from the concussive pounding on their bodies from racing in scores, and scores of races.

Specious reasoning seems to be your stock in trade. You state, "these horses are running at low level claiming races "because this is the level they can win a race...as if that is the only conclusion. Conveniently, you omit the part where Ball Four has sunk to this low level becasue he is physically unable to perform against better competion.

Take Honor Ernesto...the horse who broke down at AQU causing a 4 horse terrible collision and spill. When I commented that "that horse was ridden too hard by a lousy jockey" and broke both seismoids and had a totally collapsed knee...your stupid, stupid comment was "the jockey should ride gently and nice".
The horse Honor Ernesto...racing on Feb 13th in a low level ny claimer...just raced in another lower level claimer Feb 4th. Grinding hard the way for a 2nd place finish.

According to your limited reasoning ability...Honor Ernesto had "nothing wrong wrong with him" except the total destruction of all his legs and knee.
According to you...Honor Ernesto and Ball Four are "just running in races where they can win...and make "money".

The last part I agree with. It is cheaper for the owners/trainers to have these low level claimers breakdown on track. Cheaper than having the expense to cart the bodies away privately.

And I don't want to hear any PETA %%IT from you. I watch and gamble every day.

YOU :D are the poster boy for the Dunning-Kruger effect.
I'd elaborate, but I doubt you have the capability of understanding the concept.:D

Ball Four Retired, Sent to Old Friends :)

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...to-old-friends

:)

Ball Four to Appear at Keeneland April 16

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...eland-april-16

Ball Four at Keeneland! I've been waiting for him to get back on synthetics, which I feel is his preferred surface:D