[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by Phalaris1913

Actually, yes. He missed the end of the season due to injury in all of his later years on the track.

1975: Injury to leg prevented JCGC participation
1976: Ankle trouble; dropped from JCGC consideration days before race
1977: Ankle injury prevented likely starts in Marlboro Cup and JCGC.



We're down to about 6.5 starts per season now. There has been a decline in the average number of starts per season every year since 1992 and a general trend toward it since the early 1960s. 2YO-in-training sales probably have nothing to do with it, considering that back in the 1960s, when horses averaged more than 10 starts a year in this country, it was perfectly normal for 2YOs to be running in real races in January and February. Decent horses on good going routinely covered 3fs in 33 and change and faster. I started a project of studying the future race records of these horses and ran out of time before I got very far, but found that a large number of the horses I'd checked up until then went on to have long careers.



Two words: Native Dancer. That pretty much covers the Northern Dancer/Mr Prospector axis, as Native Dancer is the grandsire, through unsound offspring, of both. However, it doesn't help that pretty much every breeding line that once produced durable horses has been discarded as unfashionable.

If you took out the stats for the upper level Stakes horses would you find that average starts are declining as quickly?