[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Riot

Excuse me? Your failure to be able to understand anything beyond the utterly simplistic, "all horses break down" isn't backpedaling on my part.

Interesting. I say that any horse at any class level and any level of training is at risk to be injured and that is "utterly simplistic". A broad generalization, for sure, but certainly not a simplification.

And yet saying "gotta run the fastest to blow it apart" is apparently some sort of dense, scientific treatise.

Touche.

Here, for those other posters that would like to actually learn something about horses and the different types of injury they can get, and why "the good ones" so often seem to get injured:

Oooh, great. Not only do we get the completely condescending preamble, but also hopefully a re-wording of your definitive mantra, put in layman's terms for us peons who can't wrap our heads around "gotta run the fastest to blow it apart".

So I guess we're in for a nice, verbose, boring lecture from some well-reputed and board-certified clinician who has all the answers to the issues and dilemmas that plague Thoroughbred trainers.

Let's all be silent and listen:

Overdriven has exactly this type of "young, fast" horse injury: "Overdriven, winner of the Grade 3 Sanford, will not race again this year due to bone re-modeling, according to trainer Todd Pletcher. 'Basically, he has some changes to his cannon bones that were signs of immaturity,' Pletcher said. 'No fractures, no surgery necessary, we just decided we’d give him some time off and focus on Gulfstream.' "

Wait. WTF? A quote from Todd Pletcher? He's the resource we need to consult to "learn" about the complex process (for some of us lesser folks, anyways) of racehorse injury?

Actually, you may be on to something there.

In fact, maybe you should have bolded the name "Todd Pletcher" instead of some of those other fancy buzzwords. That's probably a more important factor in predicting injury than anything that has to do with speed, bone density, and the like.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go download the Vet's List from all available racing jurisdictions. From what I've learned here, it's a better tool than the DRF or the Sheets for identifying the fastest horses.

Class dismissed!