Quote:
Originally Posted by GenuineRisk
Harry D raced 20 times in 81 days? Did I read that right? Wow.
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They didn't mess around in those days.
Seabiscuit made 35 starts by November 11th of his two-year-old season and was one of the most well traveled and accomplished older horses in racing history.
The worktabs were equally wild. They'd put them through a meat-grinder schedule and have them work every three days.
Horses were demanded to be tough and campaign hard. As shown above, some of the major tracks wouldn't even accept the entry of a horse who showed visable signs of bleeding after a race.
I would think trainers and vets would be more skilled with a bleeder in no-lasix early 1990's New York or Europe today. In the old days they appearently did stuff like tying horses uncomfortably with their heads forced upward all day as a method to hopefully prevent bleeding. Today, they probably have a more expensive alternative to lasix that would help them not bleed.