Quote:
|
Originally Posted by paisjpq
by the time you see them at 2 they have undergone more changes...both natural and unnatural than you can imagine.
for example: a foal born so crooked he could hardly walk, and was by far the ungliest thing I have ever seen....had some surgical intervention, and grew up...and looked good enough that he became Cecil Seaman's (look him up if you don't know who he is and want to know his theories) pick of the sale....that horse has done exactly zero on the track.
and no I'm not a vet, it's not a profession I ever wanted to enter.
|
Was it at a yearling or a two year old sale that Cecil Seaman said that about?
Usually, if the horse moves nice, has a good workout, has clean x-rays, good conformation, walks sound on the day after the preview, isn't swollen or puffy the day after the preview, and doesn't have any abnormalities after feeling on their legs then the horse will usually make it to the races.
I've seen plenty of horses in my line of work change dramatically. We had a horse by Romantico that had awfully crooked legs as a foal, and they straightened out pretty nicely as he grew up without surgical intervention. Of course, he is still not nearly as straight as we would like him to be.
Cecil Seaman is good. I wish that I knew this HIP # that you were referring to because curiosity has me now.
The key is to go and view the horses after the day after the horse's have their two year old previews. I don't know why more trainers don't do this. I just remember seeing Todd Pletcher, Ron Ellis, Eion Harty, and a few more at Barrett's March Sale last year pulling out horses to view the day after the previews. If you don't do this, the consigners can hide puffy ankles or soundness issues easily by the time the horses enter the sales ring. Even less trainers actually feel on the horses legs the day after the previews, and you can nix some horses pretty quickly because you can feel things that you can't necessarily see that are abnormal but won't show up in the x-rays.
I would be curious to see what one of the trainers that feels on the horses legs and views the horses the day after the previews thought about the horse that you are referring to for that reason because I don't know if Cecil Seaman or his people do that.
Thanks for the story though. I will read up on Cecil Seaman now, and I had no idea who he was.