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Originally Posted by Dunbar
DrugS, what did you mean by "That was a pretty neat situation anyway"?
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I thought it was neat that a horse ran a 108 Beyer in a $7,500 claimer and was entered back for the same price.
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Originally Posted by Dunbar
How did you factor the fact that the horse came back at $7,500?
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That was obviously a very negative factor.
Be it bottom level claimers or with Graded Stake horses - with lowered expectations often comes lowered results.
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Originally Posted by Dunbar
The owner did pocket $16.5K for the win--1st place was worth $9K. Maybe they needed to pay some bills?
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Just because the horse won nicely - don't assume that the horse doesn't have some real physical problems.
This summer, a filly here won a 25K claimer by 7 lengths, finishing in a supersonic 23 and change and ran faster than N3X Alw fillies on the same card. Instead of her connections feasting on the alarmingly easy allowance ranks here with her - they entered her for a 15K tag in her next start.
Myself and a friend claimed her - she ran a very good 2nd in a strong race for the level with a little trouble to boot - though her performance was quite a bit less than her prior big win.
I spent a good hour watching her cool down out of the race and thought she looked perfect. The hotwalker thought she was going good - a trainer and groom felt up her legs and thought she was fine. Two mornings later, I'm up at 5:30 AM and I drive to the barn to see the trainer, who was just coming back from out of town.
The filly couldn't even walk, could barely even stand up, and she wouldn't touch her food...the first of about five days where she eat almost nothing. They had a vet come by to give her a digital X-ray - expecting to find a fracture.
The next day I'm told "nothings wrong. her feet are just a little sore." So the trainer says he would get her shipped out in a few days ... and she was going to some guy with a farm in West Virgina who charges just $25 a day and trains with an equisizer.
Three weeks later - they're raving to me about how well she's doing and want to run her. I'm thinking these guys are criminally insane - but they assure me that not only will she not breakdown - but she might even run as good as last time. So they send her back two days before the race and she runs an ok 3rd at 5/2 for 15K. She comes out of the race ok. the next day she's barely eating and alternating between holding her right front hoof up - than her left - than her right. Two days later, I take her for a walk and she feels like she has a flat tire. About 2 days after that - the trainer tells me she's doing just great again. Wants to drop her down and steal a win - assures me no one will claim her because the whole backside thinks she's crippled.
A delusional version of myself let him do it because a trainer trying to talk an owner into running a horse in a spot they should win - is like a pretty girl trying to talk you into making out.
She won in good time for the level under a death grip and actually came out of that sort of ok. We ran her back again in two weeks ... turns out making her 3rd start in just 4 weeks was a little too much to ask. She got beat 10 lengths at 6/5 or so. The rider, who knew her story, said she kept changing leads and he just took care of her and never got to riding her .. though he oddly didn't pull her up.