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Originally Posted by ELA
I am not a trainer, nor do I play one on the internet, so I am not going to get into the nuances of training, etc. However, as many people may or may not know/remember, Funny Cide had been a bit difficult to handle. Not that he was a complete runaway or extremely aggressive, etc., but he certainly wasn't the easiest horse to handle. Post-Derby and Preakness, he was -- if not getting worse -- certainly was not getting better. I am sure many people remember all of the things Tagg (et al) was doing -- taking him out different times of the morning, before/after the break, not around a lot of other horses, jogging him the other way, and so on. Barclay Tagg is an extremely sharp horseman. This was certainly not a case of mismanagement, a poor decision, or anything of the like. The armchair and internet trainers can think differently, and truthfully, in doing so I find it incredible entertainment.
Heading into the Belmont, I was at the track everyday, mornings and afternoons. Obviously a great number of people were watching all of the contenders, specifically Funny Cide. A very common and a large %, of the qualified opinions being voiced were that the horse, during that work was unmanagable -- period. Most had said, nobody could have, nor would have been able to do anything differently. That work was not the intended plan -- and it wasn't Tagg's fault nor Jose's fault. There was no fault. It was a no win situation.
Many trainers, again, qualified opinions, some of whom have great respect for Tagg, said that the work -- that work with that horse -- was going to make the horse aggressive, perhaps unmanagable, high-strung, etc., whatever you want to call it, and that it wouldn't help the horse and where he was. The result of that work was more likely that the horse would be way too on his toes and would not be able to relax, settle, whatever you want to call it.
Be that as it may, that work would have and could have effected different horses differently.
Now, let the debate continue, without me, LOL.
Eric
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