Tom Chuckas on Preakness/TC Spacing

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Dunbar

This is correct in so many cases, including Smarty Jones.



Rupert, injuries are all too common, regardless of spacing. I'd have to see an objective counting of horses that ran well in all 3 TC races to see if they were more likely to have a career-ending injury than horses that skipped running. Easy Goer, Sunday Silence, Bet Twice, Alysheba (he may not have run his best race in the Belmont, but I don't think you can say he didn't run hard!), Curlin, Hard Spun, War Emblem, and, Silver Charm are horses I can think of off the top of my head that ran on well.

As often happens, I liked Beyer's take on the 2-week Preakness gap, which was written before the Chukas comments, including this bit about Normandy Invasion passing up last year's Preakness:

"When he opted to skip the Preakness last year with Normandy Invasion, Porter said, “Our goal is to have a fresh horse” for races at Saratoga in August. But after passing up a golden chance to win a Triple Crown race, Normandy Invasion developed a foot abscess that prevented him from running at Saratoga; he was out of action for the remainder of his 3-year-old year."


--Dunbar

I know for a fact that Smarty Jones was in no condition to run again. I don't know where you're getting your information from.

Beyer has no idea what the condition of Normandy Invasion was after the Derby. I don't either but I can tell you that NI is not a horse that carries a ton of weight and he's not the type of horse you would want to run back in two weeks. Chad Brown is well aware of that. He's one of the best trainers in the country. I think Chad Brown has a pretty good idea of when one of his horses needs a rest.

You are right that even if you give a horse plenty of time between races the horse may still get hurt. Does that mean you shouldn't give the horse plenty of time between races? That's like saying you might as well drive drunk because plenty of sober people have accidents too. The more a horse is fatigued, the greater his chance of injury.

I am well aware that horses used to run every couple of weeks 50 years ago. I don't know why they can't do it any more but they can't. I've seen it first hand with hundreds of horses. It's hard enough to keep a horse sound running just once every 4-5 weeks. If you start running every 2-3 weeks, your horse will be toast very quickly.

As I've said before, if horses could run 20 times a year and stay sound and keep in good form, trainers would run them 20 times a year. Trainers are human. They like money.