David Junior

[kentuckyrosesinmay]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

I have a question for u. I've heard from u and others about Discreet Cat not being the soundest or physically correct horse in the world for a while now. Not saying that this is not the case but my question is how does anyone know how he would respond to a tougher schedule? I take Barbaro for instance. On another forum, I questioned before the Preakness whether his training/racing schedule was by design or by necessity? Matz always said that the horse needed more time between his races and that he performed best with a lot of spacing. But how did he know that? After his first race, he was given a break and they never actually tried racing him on a short turnaround. So there was no way they could know how he'd actually respond to a quick turnaround because he'd never had one. So my question then was did they give him the long breaks because he was coming out of his races showing that he needed it (physically spent or sore perhaps?) or were they giving him the breaks just because they THOUGHT it was what was best for him in the long run? If it was because he needed it, then that could have been a precursor to something bad happening when they ran back quick in the Preakness.

Is Discreet Cat's light campaign because of numerous physical setbacks and out of necessity to give him time to recover from his races? Do u think that the presence of Bernardini in the family has allowed them to take a much more conservative approach with him than they might have taken, or needed to take, if he was the only star in a one-star stable?

Hope this makes sense.

Is Discreet Cat's light campaign because of numerous physical setbacks and out of necessity to give him time to recover from his races?

Yes.

Do u think that the presence of Bernardini in the family has allowed them to take a much more conservative approach with him than they might have taken, or needed to take, if he was the only star in a one-star stable?

No, this horse has some really smart connections that don't push their horses and do right by their horses.

Not saying that this is not the case but my question is how does anyone know how he would respond to a tougher schedule?

We don't know, and we won't ever know if DC can handle a tough campaign. The connections won't push him and they don't have to. I expect DC is going to need a similar campaign to GZ. When he runs, I can see that his galloping style would make him prone to soundness issues. To me, he runs like an unsound horse. He really hits the ground hard with his front end, but he is as fast as they come, which enhances his problems.

But how did he know that? So my question then was did they give him the long breaks because he was coming out of his races showing that he needed it (physically spent or sore perhaps?) or were they giving him the breaks just because they THOUGHT it was what was best for him in the long run?

The reason that connections know how much a horse can take is mostly a guess, but there are indicators. For instance, I think that Barbaro lost weight after a race. Barbaro could also have come out of races puffy or it may have taken him longer to recover from a race. He also may have had some underlying soundness issues.

These are all of my opinions and I hope it helps. There are probably some others on this board that are a little more qualified and knowledgeable in this subject area than I am though...