Orb Retired, to Stand at Claiborne in 2014

[randallscott35]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

You are right, but Mine That Bird had awful form outside of the Triple Crown.

"2-year-old champion in Canada" or not, he was an unbelievable mediocrity outside of the Triple Crown series.

Look at Super Saver, another slop monkey who did absolutely nothing outside of the Derby. I'd take Mine That Bird over him as well.

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

It could be a bone or tendon injury. When there is a bone or tendon injury, some owners will make it public, but other won't. There have been plenty of cases where a horse was retired due to unsoundness or an injury and the owners announced that the horse was "retired sound".

With regard to Orb specifically, I have no idea. I would say that whatever it was, the connections were not particularly confident that the horse was going to be able regain his old form. I would say he is worth much more right now as a stallion than he would be in a year from now if he bombed as a racehorse next year.

I'd generally assume 'yeah right, they know he's not sound' because we've heard that before, but something about the way Shug and the owners were talking about him in interviews and things made me feel like they were genuinely baffled. At least during the TC and coming out of Fair Hill. I've seen enough BS delivered to know if they were going 'nothing to see here, folks' about a known problem. Maybe there was something brewing and they figured it out later. I think if he'd bled through Lasix they'd have known that too before he falls on his face the last time. Simple enough to detect with scoping isn't it? Possibly even visually. They wait til November probably after trying to get him ready again and still not being able to. Curiouser and curiouser.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

I'd generally assume 'yeah right, they know he's not sound' because we've heard that before, but something about the way Shug and the owners were talking about him in interviews and things made me feel like they were genuinely baffled. At least during the TC and coming out of Fair Hill. I've seen enough BS delivered to know if they were going 'nothing to see here, folks' about a known problem. Maybe there was something brewing and they figured it out later. I think if he'd bled through Lasix they'd have known that too before he falls on his face the last time. Simple enough to detect with scoping isn't it? Possibly even visually. They wait til November probably after trying to get him ready again and still not being able to. Curiouser and curiouser.

Whatever issues he may have right now, he may not have had during the TC. Or as you said, he may have had something that was just beginning to brew back then which became more evident later.

And I agree with everything that Linny said.

[Alabama Stakes]

phony phaker