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Originally Posted by oracle80
I agree with some of what you said but there is another issue involved. Lets take a look at Flower Alley, a horse whose BCC figure wise and visually was every bit as good or better than Bern's BCC.
The owner of FA is a billionaire, and although he could easily have gone to stud at 50 g's a pop at the end of last year(grade one 1 1/4 mile winning son of superhot Distorted Humor who also placed against HOY in the biggest race we have) but he chose to race on with him.
FA didn't go on at age 4(to say the very least) and who can say why? In any case now he goes to stud at 25 g's and was the subject of ridicule.
When you send a horse to stud "leaving them wanting more" his image forever remains intact. Bringing them back is risky not only in terms of cash, but in how it hurts to see your horse being the subject of jokes and ridicule.
Had Funny Cide had nuts, he would have gone to stud at the end of his 3YO year and be remembered as a duel classic winner. Now hes the subject of endless jokes and ridicule.
People who own these horses take tremendous pride in them, huge pride. It extends even further than that, breeders, trainers, agents, the people who raised helped raise a horse on the farm(I believe we have a Henny Hughes raiser on the board) all take tremendous pride in watching a horse that they had a part in accomplish something at the highest level. It hurts tremendously to see people taking pot shots at the horse even more than it ever hurts financially. Its a tough call for an owner to bring a horse back for another year, especially if hes had any problems that may or may not be 100% fixable. The loss of cash hurts, but hearing people talk about your horse in a negative way hurts far more. I've listened to owners in the situation of having a horse regress after being top notch at one time, and they are more hurt with stung pride than they are anything else.
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I agree with what you've said here...and the chance of a horse 'falling on his face' when they return the next year is a real possibility...but equally frustrating is watching a horse that you feel could be truly great throw in a clunker of a race and then retire the next day...talkin bout Henny of course.
And it's true that any person who had any hand in raising or training a horse then feels a measure of personal satisfaction and pride when they run well...but not just at the highest level---I was more excited yesterday when a filly that I bottle fed ran 2nd in a MSW for 3YO. It extends to every level of the sport.