California Chrome's owner just blew any goodwill.

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

It's not surprising that people who don't know the sport would agree with him because when you just hear one side of the argument about one aspect of something, you're probably going to think the argument makes sense. If you don't know the facts of a case and you just listen to the defense attorney's arguments for a couple of minutes (without hearing the prosecution's case), it will sound like the defendant has a great case.

The truth of the matter is that fresh horses do have an advantage. So what? An owner has a right to get to a race any way he wants. Nobody has the right to dictate to an owner what races his horse has to run in. Each individual TC race is a huge race. Each race has top horses and fresh horses. That is one of the reasons that each race is tough to win.

As others have said, can you imagine if the rules were the way that Coburn wants them to be? The Belmont would be a 3 horse field every year. This year it would have been a 3 horses field with CC, General A Rod, and Ride on Curlin. To have Belmonts like that, it wouldn't even be a big deal to win the TC.

So it is true that CC was at a disadvantage compared to the fresher horses but that is the way it should be. That is one of the reasons that winning the TC is so elusive and why winning the TC is such a huge accomplishment. You have to take on all comers. That is the way it should be.

If you simply go up to a novice without putting things in context and ask him if he thinks it's fair that CC ran in all the races and the other horses didn't, the guy will probably say that it's not fair. But then if you explain all the facts to the person, he will probably change his mind.

Well put, and I agree with almost all of it. While I think the proposal is ridiculous, I do think we'd end up with a few more than 3 horses that would run in all 3 races, at least for the first few years. The chance at running 2nd or 3rd in the Belmont Stakes, and the considerable prize money, would probably lure more than 3 Derby/Preakness runners. But after a few years of a having a TC winner every other year, the prestige of both the TC and the Belmont would drop and maybe then there would be just 3-horse fields in the Belmont.

--Dunbar