Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin
The emotions that owners feel are not neceassirly what you think. You said that you would think an owner would want to "have the pleasure" of watching his horse run as a 4 year old. I can't speak for all owners, but I can tell you that for many owners there would be very little pleasure. When you have a really good horse competing at the highest level, there is a lot of stress involved. It's basically a fun ride, but it's also nice when the ride is over.
I can think of a good analogy. When an athlete has some type of great streak going, sometimes when the streak finally ends, you will actually hear the athlete say that they are sowewhat relieved that the streak is finally over. The pressure can almost be unbearable.
Once your horse reaches the level of a Bernardini, you really don't gain much by going on. I'm not talking about just financially. I'm talking about all the other stuff involved too, like a lot of the stuff that Oracle mentioned. There can just be so many things on the line that there really is very little pleasure for the owner at that point. Everyone expects you to win when you have a horse that good. If you win, it's like "So what. Everyone expected him to win. He was the odds-on favorite." But if you lose, then it's a big deal. People will start to say that the horse isn't that good and that type of thing.
I'm not saying that it's not fun to own a great horse. It's a lot of fun, but by the same token there is a lot of stress involved and it can be very nice to make a big syndication deal and go out on top. It's not just a matter of the money.
Another good analogy would be if I went to Magic Mountain tomorrow and rode their best roller-coaster. Even if I had a great time on the roller-coaster, I wouldn't neceassarily get on it again the same day. I'd appreciate the one good ride and then move on to something else.
|
Rupert, a lot of what you wrote rings true. I can remember Jack Van Berg talking publicly about the stress in running Alysheba. Even though he tried to make a case for running Alysheba as a 5-yr-old, it was clear that part of him was relieved to be done with it.
I would think, though, that many owners get in the game with the dream of owning a top-notch horse that can compete at the highest level. When that unlikely dream happens to arrive, it seems to me that these same people are too quick to end it. It's as if once they hit the jackpot, they forget what motivated them in the first place. Perhaps having had the incredible luck to get one of these horses, they think it will happen again.
Your Magic Mountain analogy does not hold, because you know you can go back to that ride any time you want. Yes, you want to savor the feeling, but if you knew that (realistically) you could never ride it except for that day, you would almost certainly ride it again immediately. IMO, horse owners should be looking at it the same way, unless money was their #1 interest from the get go. (I'm not disparaging a money-oriented goal; I just think many owners get into racing for different reasons that don't revolve around money.)
But as I said at the start, I understand your point about getting out before something bad happens.
--Dunbar