[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

Empire Maker didn't run in all three, and he was made out of glass anyway, I'm pretty sure Silver Charm had a nice career, Charismatic had a freak injury, Giacomo was slow before the TC and slow after it and he did "finish" his three-year-old season with a good showing in the BCC, Big Brown and Bluegrass Cat both came back in two months to win the Haskell and the former had notoriously bad feet and was retired early because of a stud deal. Sorry, this ain't doing it. And why isn't everyone who's applauding this decision so loudly equally decrying the decision to run Mine That Bird? He's a nice little horse, yet nobody seems to mind him facing the supposedly inevitable TC knockout.

I should have included Empire Maker in the second group and not the first. Sure, Silver Charm and Real Quiet came back the next year but neither of them ran again after the Belmont in their 3yo season. I don't consider SC coming back in the Malibu as running again. Charismatic's injury may have been a fluke. Giacomo was slow but for some reason, I don't remember him running again as a 3yo. You can make excuses for any or all of them. Fluke injuries, fake injuries, whatever. The facts are that all of those that I named didn't finish their 3yo seasons. Running one or two more races is not finishing it. Big Brown, Bluegrass Cat, Empire Maker, Rags, and Point Given all came back after the Belmont but they didn't finish their seasons.

I also wouldn't run Mine that Bird. I don't think there is anything at all to gain by running him or Dunkirk or any horse that a trainer has high hopes for later. If it's a situation like the Zito horses or where you don't think you really have a top level horse and know that now is a good chance to catch a sorry field in an irrelevant race, yeah, I'd run.