O'Neil Refuses to Put Horses in Detention

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

This is the first time that a track out here has not forced enforced this rule. They are afraind that O'Neil will refuse to run his horses and they are also afraid that he will take them to court. They should call O'Neil's bluff. What's he going to do? I highly doubt that he's going to ship all his horses somewhere else.

Actually, about a month back, it was reported that O'Neill was likely to send a sizeable string to Delaware when that meet starts. Was he laying the groundwork for this line-in-the-sand move or will he follow through?

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Actually, about a month back, it was reported that O'Neill was likely to send a sizeable string to Delaware when that meet starts. Was he laying the groundwork for this line-in-the-sand move or will he follow through?

He did send a small string back east. I think he sent about 8 horses back there. It is possible that one of the reasons he did it was to show them that he can start sending horses other places if needs be. If he was trying to intimidate them, I think it worked.

I still think that it is extremely unlikely that he is going to send all or most of his horses somewhere else. He has somewhere between 150-200 horses out here. As much as he hates the detention barn, it would still be much easier for him to stay here than to ship all his horses somewhere else. It's over $8,000 per horse round-trip to go back east. It's not worth $8,000 per horse to ship back east for 60 days.

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

He did send a small string back east. I think he sent about 8 horses back there. It is possible that one of the reasons he did it was to show them that he can start sending horses other places if needs be. If he was trying to intimidate them, I think it worked.

I still think that it is extremely unlikely that he is going to send all or most of his horses somewhere else. He has somewhere between 150-200 horses out here. As much as he hates the detention barn, it would still be much easier for him to stay here than to ship all his horses somewhere else. It's over $8,000 per horse round-trip to go back east. It's not worth $8,000 per horse to ship back east for 60 days.

The interesting sub-story is that when announcing the shift eastward, O'Neill hinted that perhaps he's not as pro-synthetic as he seems ("This is a little experiment with horses that maybe we want to try on the dirt," he said. "Don't get me wrong. I love synthetic tracks, but I want to have the option."). If both he and Bob Baffert were to basically abandon CA racing, would it be a shot over the bough that would have the CHRB second-guessing the synthetic mandate? Is this part of the reason why both the track and the CHRB are willing to be buffaloed by him?