California Chrome's owner just blew any goodwill.

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by richard burch

i think what needs to change is that we tie all three races together as the name "triple crown" implies. it does seem strange that we only care about how many points a horse has for the derby and then totally disregard the other 2 races. by have designated horses for the triple crown it becomes more of a playoff type scenario.

what about nominating 23-25 horses that are eligible to run in any or all of the 3 races. start with 20 for he derby. there are always defections for the preakness and the next 5 can get in if they want or wait for the belmont. this would give the reserve horses rest but they also may have not run for 6 weeks so they dont get a clear fitness edge. you can still keep the weeks between them and the distances the same.

and if it ends up being a 6 horse field in the belmont so be it. secretariat and affirmed didn't have big fields to beat either.

I wouldn't want a horse capable of beating the Triple Crown winner on the outside looking in because they didn't fit into this. How could people take it seriously if they wonder about whether the best horse was in the race? You beat the horses that show up on the day. Cherry picking a smaller group is an attempt to make it easier for the horse attempting to win it. Thousands of horses are nominated for the TC and that's your pool (unless you end up with a horse like Rachel Alexandra who wouldn't have been included by her owners or whatever committee or points system would've been responsible for this 25-30 TC eligible horse group). Not everybody's ready to go at the same time. How would you decide who to include? It'd be like a version of the Derby future wager or something. The Triple Crown isn't an invitational and we don't want a 3-4 horse field in the Belmont. If we do things Coburn's way, that means no AP Indy, no Rachel Alexandra. They didn't run in the Derby, they'd be out.

Things didn't work out this year. They might in the future. Frankly I thought higher of previous TC attempters than I did Chrome and I wasn't that worked up about it this year for whatever reason. I liked him fine, thought he was gorgeous and had a story they write movies and books about so it'd be great for the sport, but it just didn't grab me at the same emotional level as in the past. Didn't have nearly the nervousness that I did about Smarty Jones, Charismatic, or Real Quiet. Coburn really left a sour taste for me. I wonder if he'll even want to apologize. I feel like he'll double down with the griping and bad sportsmanship when he has a chance to think about it and get even angrier. Someone will stick a mic in his face and we'll get plenty of soundbites and bad PR. He'd do everyone a favor if he hushed for awhile and let everyone calm down if he didn't feel like taking it back. I'm looking forward to the end of the year honors where some people will be railing about East Coast bias if Chrome doesn't win HOY or whatever. Ugh.

For what it's worth, Art Sherman's carried himself really well. Probably the benefit of decades of experience. He knew he wasn't gonna win the race at the end and handled it with grace. Disappointed but classy as far as I could see. Poor Mrs. Coburn got the icy death stare for poking her husband. The freeze frame is classic.