What is it with American Owners & Trainers? You give their horses a little extra weight and they run crying like little babies. Top Stakes horses in Europe are continually asked to carry 126 lbs (9st for you Brits) in the top races and sometimes 133 lbs (9st 7lbs). As Rainee said, Seabiscuit was constantly having to carry 128+ and give huge amounts of weight to his opponents and that never seemed to stop him.
I used to live in England but have been in the States for nearly 18 years now. I don’t get the chance to follow racing as much now as I used to when I lived in England so I’m not as familiar with American racing as I was with British racing. One problem that I see with American racing is that, outside of the Triple Crown and Breeder’s Cup races, there don’t appear to be a great many Stakes races (i.e. races where all horses carry the same weight, except for fillies, which get a 5lb allowance). Most of the top Graded races in the States tend to be handicaps, so the “Curlins” of today either don’t get a big choice of races to run in, or will be asked to carry masses of weight and give their opponents huge amounts of weight.
Also, owners today aren’t as keen to run their horses as long and as frequently as they did many years ago. Horses today aren’t bred as much for endurance as they used to be. By this, I mean that they aren’t being bred to race for four or five years - the top horses race as 2YO’s and 3YO’s (maybe one or two will race at 4YO) and then are retired to stud. If you look back at all the Triple Crown winners, most, if not all of them, raced into their 4YO season (or beyond), and I’m sure that most of them ran over a dozen times each. Even European racing is becoming like that where the top Classic horses are invariably retired after their 3YO season.
Racing should have retirement rules like in Final Furlong - horses must run at least ten times before they can be retired and, to be a Stallion, a horse has to have won at least 10 Stakes races (baring a career-ending injury). I say “Shanthi for Jockey Club President” (I’m sure that she could easily fit that in in her “spare time”) >:D
Haha, I’ve had a few encounters with the Jockey Club (from owning ex-racehorses) and I wouldn’t want to touch it with a 10-foot pole. They’re very…persnicketty…about what their “responsibilities” are. (Though presumably much less so if you’re a billionaire who’s helping to fund the sport, rather than a one-(non-racehorse)horse owner.
But yes, I think, for real life, a minimum number of races/age to retire would be awesome. I’d love to see colts not retire until age 5, so that they have a full 4yo year of racing to prove what they can (or can’t) do against the other big guns (as opposed to just their select 3yo crop).
I agree that 128lbs is nothing to run crying about. If your horse runs and loses, blame the weight…if he runs and wins, he’s legitimately awesome. (Not that I don’t think Curlin’s pretty awesome already.)
something else mentioned on tv was that Dutrow said he didn’t give BB his steroid shot on the 15th , that he could still win without it to prove he wasn’t doing anything wrong that he didn’t need them to run well.Makes you wonder now that if he had not had the shots to begin with if he would have been such a strong contender from the get go.
It’s cool that he’s not retiring immediately. (Not to say that they won’t find “something” wrong with him and retire him in a week, but at least they didn’t just go “we’re scared and want to bubble wrap the horse, so no more races” today.)
I like that the owners said that they love him “just as much” following his last place finish. Of course they love him, they actually look smarter for doing the stud deal pre-Belmont now . Not to say that they’d have wanted him to lose, but monetarily it means they made the smart decision. It’ll be interesting if he and Curlin match up in the Classic, though I think now a lot of people will be enh on Big Brown. There are what, 10 “almost TC winners” retired and at stud already, a lot of whom have done more on the track (as in, raced a whole 10 times in their life not just 6).
Actually, missing a shot of the type of steroid he was on wouldn’t make much difference in his performance. He’s been on muscle-building steroids probably most of his life; he’s been building these over-produced muscles for years now; one month’s missed dose isn’t going to cause mass muscle decomposition and therefore failure on the track.
What’s interesting, though, is that when this type of steroid is used in humans, failure to maintain a regular dosage results in withdrawal. Symptoms of withdrawal often include severe depression, lack of energy, etc. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Big Brown is suffering steroid withdrawal.
They showed pre-race video of him bucking in his stall and stuff, too, which is apparently pretty unusual for him. So I could see a psychological change playing a role.
And yeah, with the stud deal already sewn up, what’s not to like about the horse? Best case scenario, he wins a few more races before he retires…worst case scenario, they retire him now and cash in on the $50M or whatever. (Surprised the deal wasn’t “50M now, if he wins the TC, 75M” or something.)
In any other race Desormeaux most likely would have been fined/suspended for doing what he did. Pulling up a structurally sound horses is against the rules, if the horse clearly has no chance you put the whip away and gallop to the wire. I’ve heard that this is a classic Desormeaux move. He pissed off a lot of trainers in California pulling this stunt.
Plus pulling him up the way he did with BB fighting every step of the way is more dangerous than if Desormeaux had let him finish the race and eased up past the wire.
And way to go Kent, this Belmont ride was 10 times more horrific than the ride you gave Real Quiet in the '98 Belmont.
I do think he should have just let the horse gallop to the wire at his own pace on his own accord. I mean its not like the horse physically has anything wrong with him that can be found. Who knows-he may have been 5th if he hadn’t been pulled up. No one knows. I mean the horse was fighting every step of the way. And the way I saw it was he never even showed him the whip, so its like he gave up before Big Brown did. But at the beginning of the race he just wanted Kent to let go and let him run. So IDK. Its weird.
But as it goes I didn’t want him to win, I wanted to see him get beat and he did but he didn’t even get to fight for the loss to the wire.
They’re very…persnicketty…about what their “responsibilities” are. (Though presumably much less so if you’re a billionaire who’s helping to fund the sport, rather than a one-(non-racehorse)horse owner.
