"Do We Need a Sturdier Racehorse?"

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

The thing that always baffles me is how the period of the 70's when there was an unprecedented jump in the number of horses produced always seems to escape people when they talk about the "weakening" of the breed. You dont have to be an expert to understand that the average horse in a foal crop of 60000 is "weaker" than the average horse in a foal crop of 25000. This is even more pronounced when you remember that the breed is selected, not naturally occurring. Lesser breeding stock was allowed into the gene pool in order to increase the numbers so dramatically.

This doesn't make sense at all to me.

The more breeding you do - the better your population should get over time.

Speed wins horse races - and early developing horses are always attractive to owners - that's what the market wants.

Lets say there's no purse money for winning or order of finish at all - and horses are simply asked to race 30 times a year with limited medication for three straight years under the same training program . If you use the 5% of males who best stand up to this type of program - and keep breeding them to a hundred mares each ... I doubt you'd see a weakening breed.

Horses, however slowly they run, who can simply answer the bell over and over without much medication aren't the ones rewarded to stand stud.

The ones rewarded to stud are the ones who are simply the standout performers and can run the fastest six or seven times a year - and do so with the aid of medication that is helpful to their performance.

Winning matters. If the sport was Commie run - the breed would be a whole lot tougher even if you're letting every single female who wasn't euthanized from racing into the gene pool.