[Kasept]

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

Steve, a horse doesn't have to be hobbling on the track to be a ticking time bomb. He was in my stable mail, I had a pretty good idea of much hard training he got and was concerned but I just figured the fact that Bob was still making a go of it was a good sign. Now I wonder what it was a sign of exactly. TC was sound until he wasn't and when he wasn't he really really wasn't. Three times and we all know how the 3rd one went. Compared to TC, Monzante was an iron horse.

Take Control clearly had issues that could appear all of a sudden (well, as far as we were concerned) and take him out for lengthy periods of time. You'd think that'd make them a little trigger happy with the x-rays after a poor performance. I'd be looking at him like he was made of glass after his last two incidents. No way does his Awesome Again not call for a thorough going over. Did he get it? Orb did after his last face plant. Great that clockers thought TC looked fine. Clearly wasn't fine enough to finish anything other than dead last in his last race. He's a better horse than that. Something wasn't right, the kind of not right that would get some connections to wait for next year, not go to the Breeders' Cup. Imagine if they decided to give him the winter off so as to not risk another year lost or worse. Didn't Baffert talk about how well a horse has to be doing to warrant coming to the BC? TC was gonna bring his A game? What exactly does that look like? Forgive me I've only seen it once in 2009 and once in 2012. It sounds harsh because I was invested in a horse I felt had writing on the wall, but I can't be sorry for that harshness. It's just something that seems obvious to me, and clearly other posters here. I don't get how this happened despite that obviousness. Whatever his training, his racing form didn't make me think he was sitting on a big one.

I understand every aspect of what you're thinking/feeling. It's obvious that Take Control needed extensive time off for periods but it's also implausible that Baffert and Shah, already facing intense critique for the group of horses that died, would press on with him if he was presenting as in a danger zone. You can then make the argument that his entire body of non-work put him in a danger zone and that's not wrong. But they're all in a danger zone to varying degrees. An unknown 12yo named Who's Livin Bettor that should be retired made his 99th start at Finger Lakes Thursday. Who's worried about his well being? What's more 'wrong'.. continuing to campaign him or Take Control? This is always a difficult arena. I'm saddened by Take Control going down. I thought he was going well and was pulling for him to fulfill as much of his promise as he could.