"Spaced" Races And "Fresh" Horses Are Killing The Sport

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Five Star Derek

Cannon-I appreciate your advice but I've been around this game long enough and at different capacities to know that you can't believe everything you read. That goes for many things also. By the way, I didn't read this I heard it first hand. I spend most of my time close to the tracks in the northeast so that is generally where I do my horse business and that is where I am in tune with the most.

I never mentioned stress fracture in my previous threads so I don't know where you came up with that. Most horses running today have various ailments and trainers continue to run them depending on the trainer and the ailment. They can continue to run good but maybe not have as long of a career. I'm sure you already know this. As far as speculation is concerned, I'll chose to listen to the connections speculation rather then somebody on a message board. They would know more about their horse than us and by the way Tim Ritchey is a straitforward guy in this business. He doesn't like to pull punches.

So u are saying that u have firsthand knowledge that these people KNEW that he was injured in the Preakness but instead of backing off on him, they pushed forward just for the sake of winning the Belmont? How in the world is this in line with what they always stated, that they were doing what was best for the horse? If indeed u got this first hand and it's a fact that he was hurt in the Preakness, their actions were not only dangerous and insensitive to the horse, but I would argue that they border on criminal.

[Five Star Derek]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

So u are saying that u have firsthand knowledge that these people KNEW that he was injured in the Preakness but instead of backing off on him, they pushed forward just for the sake of winning the Belmont? How in the world is this in line with what they always stated, that they were doing what was best for the horse? If indeed u got this first hand and it's a fact that he was hurt in the Preakness, their actions were not only dangerous and insensitive to the horse, but I would argue that they border on criminal.

Most horses who run are hurt in some way, that is a fact. This is the unfortunate part of our business. There is no question that there are many trainers that do insensitive and dangerous things to horses by running them with certain conditions which could border on criminal. There would be no racing if only completely sound horses would be aloud to run. Sometimes a simple quarter crack could turn into a catestrophic injury by slightly altering a horse running style. Is that criminal or is it a judgement call gone wrong?

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Five Star Derek

Most horses who run are hurt in some way, that is a fact. This is the unfortunate part of our business. There is no question that there are many trainers that do insensitive and dangerous things to horses by running them with certain conditions which could border on criminal. There would be no racing if only completely sound horses would be aloud to run. Sometimes a simple quarter crack could turn into a catestrophic injury by slightly altering a horse running style. Is that criminal or is it a judgement call gone wrong?

Yes, everything you are saying is true.

But with regard to Afleet alex, I certainly don't think that Ritchey thought that Alex had a fracture before the Belmont. They discovered the injury after the Belmont and they are guessing that he sustained the injury in the Preakness. That is their best guess. They don't know it for sure.

[Five Star Derek]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

Yes, everything you are saying is true.

But with regard to Afleet alex, I certainly don't think that Ritchey thought that Alex had a fracture before the Belmont. They discovered the injury after the Belmont and they are guessing that he sustained the injury in the Preakness. That is their best guess. They don't know it for sure.

Rupert-I never implied or wrote in any previous threads that Ritchey thought Alex had a fracture before the Belmont. Only that AA was injured to some degree in the Preakness. This of course is all speculation on everybody's part. I just think the connections know their horse well and think they would know better than all of us.