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Originally Posted by ateamstupid
Yeah, Curlin was so sound he made his debut in February of his three-year-old year and drifted out into the middle of the track in winning it.
The best counter-argument you can come up with is Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex, two horses anyone with a brain knew would probably never race after the Belmont, injury or no?
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Just because a horse doesn't start as a 2 year old, that doesn't mean the horse is unsound. If I buy a very sound-looking 2 year old at a sale, I know the chances of that horse running as a 2 year old are probably no more than 20-30%. Not because the horse is unsound, but because the horse is bound to come down with some minor issue that will require a little time. You can have a horse that is close to racing in July and if they come down with a shin or something minor that requires 45-60 days at the farm, that horse will not run until January or February of the next year. If you turn a horse out for 2 months, they won't be able to run for 5 months because of the lost training.
I'm sure you are right that Curlin had a minor issue that prevented him from running as a 2 year old. But that hardly means he was an unsound horse. We know quite to the contrary that he was very sound. He was an "iron horse". He lasted all year as a 3 year old and then ran great as a 4 year old.
I don't know how you can say that Smart Jones or Afleet Alex would not have run again if they didn't get hurt. They were absolutley going to run again if they didn't get hurt. I've never heard of any sound 3 year old retiring only half-way through the year. There is this misperception out there that owners and trainers make up stories about their horse being injured. It is just the opposite. They will often lie and claim their horse is sound when in fact the horse is not. A good example was the filly Sweetcatofmine. When she was retired relatively early in her 3 year old year, the owner proclaimed that she was "retiring sound" which was total nonsense. If a horse is going to the breding shed, you certainly don't want people to think that the horse was unsound or that the horse was forced to retire due to injury. All things being equal, most people would rather breed to or buy the yearling of a sound horse than an unsound horse. So you would never want to say that your horse was unsound if it wasn't true.
Guys will downplay injuries and deny injuries. They don't make up stories about horses being injured. Owners don't feel the need to feign injury to justify retiring a horse.