Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin
I don't think things have changed that much the last 20 years. I was going to the track every day back in the 1980s. Horses neded time between races in the 1980s too. For example, horses were usually tired after the Triple Crown races and usually got a couple of months off. I don't see a huge difference betwen now and the 1980s. I really don't know much about the 1960s and 1970s but from what people have said it sounds like horses were running much more often back then. It sounds like things are quite different now from 40 years ago, but not from 20 years ago.
|
Rupert, I was thinking of horses like Alysheba, who ran 7 times as a 2-yr-old, 10 times as a 3-year-old, and 9 times at 4. Sunday Silence ran 9 times as a 3-yr-old. Ferdinand ran 29 times in his career. Holy Bull ran 10 times as a 3-yr-old.
And if we go back just 26-28 years, we have Spectacular Bid racing 9 times as a 2-yr-old, an astounding 12 times as a 3-yr-old, and 9 times as a 4-yr-old. And he didn't lose any of those last 9 races.
What makes the 12 times as a 3-yr-old even more astounding was that he WAS given time off after the Belmont, at least in part because of the hoof injury. So a lot of those 12 races had to be coming on very short rest.
--Dunbar