[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

I think what you are kind of missing here is that most trainers do what they feel is right for their horse, and they know these horses better than anyone else. You have mentioned Prized. While I guess it was unconventional for him to go in the Turf, he had very solid turf breeding, and Drysdale must've thought could win, and who could argue with him? Da Hoss had physical problems almost from day one, as did another horse he resurected A Huevo. He gave them the time they needed, and they performed well. Matz thought it was best for Barbaro to go into the Derby fresh, and he was right, probably because he knew his horse.
Personally I think the breed in general is declining. Horses can't run as frequent as they used to. now there are exceptions to that, but for the most part they can't. Why that is, I don't know. Could it be they are asked to run too fast too early, maybe. But on one hand you want horses to not be hard pressed early, but you want them to run 6-8 times as a juvenile. You don't see many horses running that much, that early, and then around late in their 3 year old year. And of course part of it is the breeding game. Some, not all, some horses are retired prematurely because of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I don't want them hard presed running 8-9f as 2yo's but I do think that a good number of races at distances no further than 6f would be ok. I think that would help them get the racing experience and the foundation they need to be able to withstand the rigors of racing for a long period of time. I don't think it makes any sense to baby a horse through his 2yo season by running two or three times and then ask them to be ready for the TC trail and the TC races. I think u are asking for trouble. U say that horses can't run as frequent as they used to but I don't believe that's true. I think they just don't get the chance to run as often anymore. Maybe that's because more trainers/owners are afraid of losing races and diminishing their horses value so they limit the number of races in order to try to have them at peak form for each start. It used to be where horses would race themselves into form and losses on a record didn't hurt like they do now. U see it with a gelding like Perfect Drift. Every year, they start him off in those grass races. They don't care if he loses since it won't hurt his stud value anyway. Their goal is to use those races to get him into shape for his main goal, which is usually the Foster Hcp.