Waiting for news on...

[my miss storm cat]

Awww, okay thanks. I'll add her to the other thread.

* * *

Fifth of November, at Mountaineer...

[my miss storm cat]

Terrain (Iowa Derby)...

http://www.equibase.com/static/chart...062609USA9.pdf

Silver Story (Arlington R2)...

http://www.equibase.com/static/chart...062609USA2.pdf


edit -
http://www.drf.com/news/article/105028.html

[my miss storm cat]

Jordanelle, HP Race 7...

http://www.equibase.com/static/chart...062709USA7.pdf

[my miss storm cat]

My City By the Bay, at HP yesterday. Hope he's okay...

http://www.equibase.com/static/chart...070509USA2.pdf

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by my miss storm cat

My City By the Bay, at HP yesterday. Hope he's okay...

http://www.equibase.com/static/chart...070509USA2.pdf

I know he pulled up. It didn't look life-threatening but I don't know for sure. I didn't hear anything.

Have you noticed that far fewer horses are having catastrophic injuries in the afternoon at HP and SA. There is a reason for this. The state vets are being much stricter about who they are allowing to run. There are plenty of horses that would have been allowed to run in the past, that they will not allow to run any more. The Eight Belles incident has actually saved alot of lives because the state vets have gotten much stricter as a direct result of Eight Belles. It shouldn't have taken such a well publicized incident for them to finally do something. There were way too many horses breaking down before the Eight Belles incident and yet nobody was doing anything about it. There were injured horses running every day that had no business running.

There were two big name horses this year entered in big races that were scratched and both of these horses would have been allowed to run in the past. I can promise you that both The Pamplemousse and I Want Revenge would have been allowed to run before the Eight Belles incident. But as a direct result of the Eight Belles, the tracks are being much stricter. Although the press reported otherwise, both The Pamplemousse and I Want Revenge were vet scratches. Had the state vet not forced those horses to scratch, they would have both run, even though both horses were injured and had no business running.

[my miss storm cat]

Thanks for your insight...

I didn't realize that about the state vets.

[chucklestheclown]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

There were two big name horses this year entered in big races that were scratched and both of these horses would have been allowed to run in the past. I can promise you that both The Pamplemousse and I Want Revenge would have been allowed to run before the Eight Belles incident. But as a direct result of the Eight Belles, the tracks are being much stricter. Although the press reported otherwise, both The Pamplemousse and I Want Revenge were vet scratches. Had the state vet not forced those horses to scratch, they would have both run, even though both horses were injured and had no business running.

What kind of media would not report this? If they are saying it is a trainer scratch and not a vet scratch (which is a vital statistic in handicapping) doesn't it have to be true? Are you saying the vets say "Scratch him or I will?". How is that different from saying "Bench him or he will foul out"?

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by chucklestheclown

What kind of media would not report this? If they are saying it is a trainer scratch and not a vet scratch (which is a vital statistic in handicapping) doesn't it have to be true? Are you saying the vets say "Scratch him or I will?". How is that different from saying "Bench him or he will foul out"?

Yes, that is correct. They were basically told, "Scratch him or I will." In most situations, it wouldn't be done this way. In most situations, the horses would simply be vet scratches. But these two horses were high profile horses in high profile races. It looked better for everyone involved if these horses were voluntary scratched.

In the real world, I think a good anology would be when an employee is asked to resign, instead of getting fired. When a person resigns, it allows them to save face and it's just a better situation for everyone involved. There's much less controversy when someone resigns.

By the way, the state vets were obviously 100% correct in not allowing either of those horses to run. Both of those horses had pretty serious injuries and will be lucky if they ever make it back to the races again.