The Gods have finally spoken...

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

What's also ironic about the Touch Gold comparison is that despite the Belmont win, later in the '97 season,Touch Gold tailed off badly (just as Big Brown did today), getting beat the length of the stretch at odds-on in the Pegasus (in a 4-horse field) and then virtually easing in the BC Classic behind Skip Away. I don't recall exactly, but I believe the excuse was the development of a quarter crack, possibly a result of the trauma sustained in the Preakness followed by continued training/racing during the summer.

It's really pretty amazing the way they downplayed that quarter crack. My main trainer told me all week that he didn't think BB would hit the board. He told me that if you had a $50,000 claimer with a quarter crack like that, you would have two choices. Your first choice would be to give the horse 6 months off. If you didn't want to give the horse the time off, then the other option would be to drop the horse in for $25,000.

I wish I would have listened to him and bet against BB. I figured that since the horse worked alright the other day and since the quarter crack didn't bleed that it probably would not bother the horse. I should have listened to my trainer. He knows 1000x more than I do about injuries.