'roids.


not sure he'll return to the track, depends as said above on insurance. if there is a policy, then the ins co would own the horse.
it's a shame these two horses are by danehill--if they were by any other stallion, they'd both still be running. but everyone is trying to replace him, and make some bucks off his legend.
here's hoping geo comes back to the track. i'd imagine he will.

they need to get these horses off of the drugs.

You've got a point, and I'm not trying to deduce the reasons behind retiring GW, but he accomplished a whole hell of a lot, that based on our breeding industry here could be construed as him having proven himself enough.

I don't say that in jest either, he was a hell of a racehorse around a mile, and with his bloodlines he'd be a lucrative stud offering in any market really.

Supposedly no drugs in Europe

LOL....Steriods, does a body good

Umm, you answered your own question....I wondered if Mott ever got his hands on GW, circa 1996...Freaking nonsense these guys.

I dont believe that there are that many, just a whole lot more being made stallions than racing

supposedly no drugs in high schools either....I know you could get them in the one I went to

usually they run them at four, but they were very up front about wanting his bloodlines, and didn't want to risk it if they ran him at four and lost him. but you'd think with the amount of danehills running around over there, they could have found another replacement. i don't think the raised eyebrows are about him so much as retiring a perfectly healthy newly turned three year old to take his place. but i'd imagine there were a lot of folks that booked to GW, and that's a lot of money to lose due to his issues, whatever they may be.

That's b/c of the crowd you went with...You were like Frenchie from Grease.

exactly

Nicely put Da Hoss!

you mightnt like the Germans, but they know how to keep their breed sound...

from the racingpost

WHILE IT is not unheard of for a stallion to enter stud having raced only at two, there is not thought to be another case in which a sound racehorse has been retired before racing at three to stand at stud.

Racing Post bloodstock expert Tony Morris said: “Obviously, Coolmore have a responsibility to breeders, but I think it’s very sad that breeding is being put above racing, and I think most people in racing will take a dim view.

“To my mind, a horse isn’t proven unless he’s run for two seasons, and in Germany a horse cannot stand at studunless he has run for at least two seasons. Retiring Holy Roman Emperor now has deprived the horse of the opportunity to prove himself, and racegoers of a lot of fun.”
German stallion owners have long had to comply with stringent rules withregards to which horses can stand at stud.

Rules written well over a century ago state, among other things, that a potential stallion must have raced for at least two seasons, must have a rating of at least 110, and should have no hereditary conformational flaws.

Rudiger Alles of the German International Bloodstock Agency believes these rules should be adhered to.

“Retired thoroughbreds should improve the breed, and while the German authorities and breeders think these rules are a good thing, they will be kept to,” he says.

“It makes sense that a horse should have had to race for at least two seasons, as a lot of good two-year-olds lose their form at three.”

Boy wouldnt that be nice if we had some of those same rules here? Great idea!

No German horse who stands at stud can have raced on any medication also from what I understand. This includes Mares who are bred.

Probably the best in the world at holding the breed to a higher standard.

I am rooting for them to win with Quijano on World Cup night, that horse is a winner.

That would be a Breeder's Cup Turf and a Dubai Sheema Classic within two years for German breds.

i am rooting also for quijano then maybe here in the states, somebody with some power in this industry can see that these horses don't have to be on drugs to perform at any level of compitition.

I pray he wins.....by open lengths if at all possible.

You wonder if a horse like that even would understand if he didn't finish first in a race.

I think it has only happened to him once in his first start if I am reading correctly.

agreed on all points

It's probably been said before, but the whole breeding/racing mis-alignment smacks of a huge pyramid scheme. You find 150 people to send you $50,000 to breed to your horse. You tell each of them that he/she can take the foal, and when it grows up there will be 150 people who will send them $50,000/year to breed. And so on.

Just like a pyramid scheme, a few people are making a lot of money, but most of the people must be losing.

I believe that sooner or later this bubble has to pop. It just doesn't make economic sense. There is not enough stakes money to support the current inflated breeding costs. The only way to make back your money is to retire and breed, and that's where it becomes a pyramid scheme.

--Dunbar