Allam (Premium Tap) done in US
 

http://racing.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=38488

Freakin ridiculous.

Apparently no one recognized that Allam is Premium Tap. Either that or no one cares that our second best horse is never returning to run in the US.

I think it sucks...but since i am not even a little bit surprised by the news i guess i just figured I had nothing to add to the discussion...(or lack of discussion , whichever the case it is :p )

I feel real bad for Kimmel, he finally gets top class older horse than this happens to him. I was looking forward to watching him run the next couple of months in big races in the states.

What really sucks is he kissed their butts so bad and praised the King's Cup as this super prestigious race and still winds up losing the horse.

not surprising is a better analogy. Once he was purchased by foreign connections you had to know he was not going to be managed traditionally.




I LOVE Premium Tap, was part of the biggest score i ever made ( Woodward @ 31:1 ) Hit the pick 4 twice ( 16k+ ).

I had heard this was probably going to happen, and alluded to it a couple weeks ago, but it's still unfortunate. They spent their money, and can do as they please, but it's still disappointing.

yeah, no surprise. it's why i was so disappointed to hear he had been sold to begin with, everyone had to know this would most likely happen.

but hey, at least he'll be running a year from now!

I hate that saying in horse racing. Can you imagine if someone bought the San Antonio Spurs and announced they were no longer going to play Tim Duncan except in exhibition games overseas? No one would say "they bought the team, they can do as they please". They would take sanctions against them and make sure they never owned another franchise in professional sports. If people start buying our horses and removing them from the country then slap a sanction on them whereby they can't race anyone in the U.S.

An enormous amount of money and effort has gone into building extremely good and modern racing facilities in Saudi Arabia. It is hardly surprising that they would want to use a top racehorse, whom they paid dearly for, to begin to legitimize their program.

A better analogy of the kind you gave would be if Tim Duncan chose to sign a huge contract with a European league who paid him excessively in an effort to give their league credibility.

That would really be a good idea....

Punish people from spending way too much on our horses by not letting them do with them as they please.

Maybe the Americans who go to Europe and buy marginally successful turf runners to come over here and beat up on our subpar group should be sanctioned as well.

Or the horses from Australia and New Zealand who go to Hong Kong and Macau should come with a "sanctioned price."

It is kinda sad that we won't be able to see a rematch with him and Invasor.

Yeah its disappointing, would have liked to have seen him campaign here.

But not at all surprised that the new ownership has different plans.

No more surprised than when US owners purchase horses in SA and run them up here.

We very well might, if both of them point towards next year's world cup.

I credit Invasor's owners in running him this year. I seriously doubt we will see him next year.

kinda like David Becklam and US soccer

not that he will make much of a difference

You would just be hurting domestic owners, because you would be robbing them of potential buyers.
If all countries did this we would not have had Invasor racing here.
Or many other fine horses.

Well I think Invasor would have been bought anyway by someone who had no interest in running in South America anyways. The same thing would likely happen with the Saudis buying our stock and never racing anyone over here if those sanctions existed. I know it isn't practical, just pissed to see our top horses brought overseas and really hate hearing "it's their money, they can do what they want" when in every other sport that isn't the case. It is because this "sport" is treated so much like a business that it has such a hard time drawing more fan interest.

I'd put the odds of that happening at AT LEAST 10-1. More like 25-1. Too many things can get in the way.

--Dunbar

Well, one could use your same argument and say that South America was robbed of Invasor.

Look, I'm not saying I am in any way happy that Premium Tap is gone, but this is a business, and the business is not great for fans who enjoy seeing the good horses. However, they aren't retiring Premium Tap, they just aren't racing him here.....like Invasor isn't running in his home country.