[Theatrical]

Originally Posted by NoChanceToDance

This happens all of the time nowadays i'm afraid to say. Not just in Hong Kong, either.

I don't know a great deal about Cruz, but i still find it hard to believe he is/was as bad as is being said on this thread.

As fans, we are very petty. One moment we are moaning about horses who are retired about less then ten runs, and then we also begin to moan when a trainer is running a horse too much.

I'm not for one minute saying you or mmsc are wrong, but i've seen Cruz and his team at work, it is obvious he cares very much about his horses, especially when he trained SW. He meant the world to him and i doubt he would have caused the horse any harm without knowing. I don't think he is like the Godolphin operation, anyway.

Not all viruses can be found straight away. There is a very popular trainer over here who ran a horse with Stomach Ulcers, but they just couldn't be found and it wasn't until two poor runs that the owner allowed for him to be sent to be tested for everything, which cost the owner A LOT of money, and it wasn't until then that the ulcers were found. The same can be said for many viruses, and although i cannot be sure, i would be more inclined to blame the owners not to have spent more money to get him properly tested in the first place.

Anyway, if SW's owners really didn't like the way the horse was being treated by Cruz why didn't they just take him from the stable? They have every right to do so and no matter how much power Cruz had then, he wouldn't have been able to stop them. No matter how unhappy the owners were "said" to be, if they were genuinely upset with Cruz, they would have pulled him from the yard. It happened to the trainer my father used to work for, a horsebox of the owners came to pick the horse up, but as he was their property, there was nothing he could do other than sit and watch it happen.

Your guess is as good as mine here.