Horse of the Day: George Washington

[chucklestheclown]

I was expecting the "in the wild" argument.

[Revidere]

For those who were not affected by GW's plight, he stopped right in front of me.

As a fan and lover of the principals, I needed to turn away. As a photogrpaher, I needed to shoot. They are three of the most gruesome photogrpahs taken on track.

I don't show them to anyone, and choose to remember him as he was in the paddock that day, alert and ready to run.

[Danzig]

i'd imagine everyone was affected. no one wants to see one of these horses have to pay a high price for running and racing. but like freddymo, i won't point fingers. had his owner and trainer known beforehand that something would happen, obviously he would not have run. but no one in that position has the luxury of foresight, altho everyone seems to have plenty of hindsight-which really does no one any good. a lot of horses ran in the slop that day-luckily only one suffered a tragic fate. but i don't see why his owners are any more deserving of disparaging remarks than anyone else-except the other owners were lucky enough to have their horse return to the barn.

it's a lovely picture of george, and is very touching considering what happened after.

[brianwspencer]

Beautiful picture. Stunning, really.

I'm a big softy about just about everything in this game, but I hold no ill will toward Coolmore or O'Brien about the whole thing.

My favorite horse in quite some time was obviously at her best on the grass, outside of a romping maiden claiming win against overmatched company, she was never a dirt horse. She was a solid turf runner, turning the corner into something potentially really special last year at Fair Grounds.

I was surprised when she wasn't scratched out of an off-the-turf race earlier this year, despite the track being listed as "fast."

I was surprised to see her pull up after a bad step down the lane, and surprised to hear she had been euthanized and that those on-track have said it was pretty nasty.

But I'd never blame her trainer for keeping her in that spot when grassy allowance races for fillies are carded seemingly every other day down at Fair Grounds and he could have run her back in no time at all. I hold no ill will, despite the fact that I regularly wonder what kind of runner she was on her way to becoming and have yet to find a horse who catches my attention quite the same way.

I'm as emotional as they get, and though I really honestly do miss seeing her run and the way I appreciated her like very few horses who have come before her, I still don't blame anyone or anything but pure bad luck.

[NTamm1215]

There was an eerie silence in the grandstand after the Classic as everyone realized it was George who went down. I immediately remembered the two Irishmen who I walked into the track with that morning from the train and them asking me if I had ever seen George in the flesh. They told me he was the most beautiful horse ever and they were probably right.

It was a sad day and a perfect illustration of how these great animals that bring us so much enjoyment are so fragile. RIP GW.

NT