7 of 8 BC winners to run next year
 

All of em except Ouija Board, and if any horse ever deserved retirement its her, what an incredible mare.
Very encouraging to see everyone else coming back for more.

"Deserve" retirement? Sounds like you think racing is cruelty to the horse. Horses are born and bred to do one thing...run. If she didnt want to run anymore it would be made very clear by the horse. The only thing horses deserve is not to be retired at 3 and forced not to run anymore.

Dude she fought more battles than Patton. Shes an alltime great and has proven all there is to prove.

I totally agree. But thats just like saying Tom Brady should of retired after his second superbowl at age 24, he has nothing left to prove? Then he wouldnt of won his third. Ive been around horses enough to know that some of them like training just like human athletes and some like competition also. It would just be a shame to stick a horse in a barn all day and let them stand in a field if they are not ready to do that. Shes at he top of her game right now. Anyways she only has two more starts in her over in Japan. Maybe she has something to prove over there.

I suppose Brady could have retired after winning the big game ..... how much would a first crop Brady be worth ?

Tom Brady is the epitomy of hot. :cool:

Sorry... carry on. :D

In the tens of millions. Possibly the greatest sire since Evansville Slew.

I think he is icky.

Dont know, but how many mares is oiuja board going to mount this year?
Oh wait isnt she a she? So I dont think she will be having crops.

Are you serious? I think he's a cute kid for sure, although I'm not partial to the Patriots.

Dead serious, something about him always really irritated me. I bartended an event that he was at and still was completely unimpressed.

I've never met him... just seen him on tv, so you'd probably know better than me.

Gator I think you are the epitomy of hot!;)

I agree with you, I love seeing horses race as much as the next person, but there comes a time when a special horse like her has accomplished more than a person can dream of, she has earned the right to relax and hopefully reproduce her greatness. I certainly would be terrified of losing her after all she has done.

I've been around horses a long time too, and frankly, unlike Brady, Ouija Board would rather hang around a beautiful green pasture with a herd of pals doing nothing but eating and scratching in the sunlight, most of them would! :D

They sure would... :D

I can understand what he's saying to an extent, though... when I retired my jumper, it took him a good 6 months to understand that there weren't going to be any more horse shows. Whenever we loaded up the trailer, he'd whinny from his paddock and wonder why the hell he wasn't going too. Sometimes, if a horse lives a certain lifestyle for long enough, they don't know any other life and it's a big adjustment for them... especially for the competitive and dominant horses. (Which are few and far. LOL)

I know I'm going to sound like a pooh-pooher, but it's not really retirement; it's her next career-- she'll be either pregnant or nursing for the rest of her active years, which is not exactly risk-free for mares. It's not like they're retiring her so she can relax- they're moving her to broodmare so they can, hopefully for them, continue to make money off of her.

Mind you, I agree that there isn't much left for her to prove, and since Kingmambo seems to be getting a bit long in the tooth in HIS second career, perhaps better to get a Kingmambo baby as soon as possible!

I can't grouse about retiring a five-year-old mare the way I can a three-year-old colt, though, so I'm looking forward to following her babies' careers. Plus, it's easier to follow a mare's babies, since they don't have as many!

Are you the new horse whisperer. I had a conversation with OB last month and she told me that she loved racing thats why she still wins. When did she tell you that she would rather hang out in a field and do nothing?

My whole point to this thread earlier was that I thought Oracle made it seem it was cruel to race a "race" horse. This is what they do. If she seemed hurt or was lacking on the race track I would say def. retire. But as far as I could tell she still has something in her so let her race. And as gator said horses do get depressed when taken off the racetrack or out of competition, its all they know.

I'm not a horse whisperer, but I know horses and they race because we make them, it isn't something they would do on their own. I, nor Oracle, was inferring that racing was cruel, but rather that she has accomplished enough on the track to earn a nice retirement, and yes, it's a life horses love, THAT is what they were evolved to do. I have heard of horses pining away when taken from the track, but it's 9 out of 10 times geldings, they are managed completely different, mares LOVE being out in pasture, thats there natural life.

I should add that I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. I think that the majority of horses enjoy life out in the field. There are cases where it's an adjustment period for them, but I think that they enjoy it a lot more than being hauled around everywhere for competitions or races.

I think that Ouija Board definitely deserves to rest. She's done all that she's been asked for and then some.