I undertand the frustration of people seeing horses with high earnings running for bottom tags. I work with a couple of organizations helping to "outplace" horses that are no longer viable as racehorses. Alot of folks directly involved are not racing people, they are horsemen though. They don't understand how a horse can have $500k in earnings, yet the owner is running him for a $5k tag. Well, if that owner paid $7.5k for him and $5k is where he fits today, it's often that (somewhat smalltime) owner that ends up "on the hook" for a lifetime of retirement care.
Most people away from the track don't understand claiming and the idea that a horse just passes glibly from barn to barn, owner to owner via the claiming route. For most pleasure and showhorse owners, transactions involving your horses are very big deals involving many phone calls, test rides, vet checks, shipping arrangements, insurance agents and what not. They cannot fathom filling out a form and essentially sight unseen, buying a horse for any amount. As such, they don't realize how many people may have been involved and how much expense went into that $500k in earnings. A 9yo horse, with $500k in earnings may well have been a net loss to most of his owners over the course of his career, after expenses are factored in.
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RIP Monroe.
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