AFLEET ALEX OUT OF HASKELL & TRAVERS

[jbelfior]

Condylar fracture. What a shame. Maybe the stress of that Preakness incident??


Good Luck,
joe B.

[Silver Charm]

Or the Stallion Fee price suddenly went up just before he was going to race again.

Don\'t kid yourself these guys are just like all the rest of them.

They took the money and ran.

[Michael D.]

yea, it\'s all a scam. the surgery, the screw in the leg, all of it.

[kev]

I see both sides of this, no they didn\'t fake all that, but some of these horses could come back and run, but they won\'t let them. We\'ll hear some BS story in the next couple of weeks or so about how he\'s done.

[Michael D.]

i was just kidding kev. i hope the horse comes back. i\'m still not sure if he is as good as the top older horses. i was really looking forward to the fall races. all indications are that he will race again, but the name of the stable is Cash is King.

kev,

I agree with you.

I don\'t think all or even most of the injuries are faked, but I can\'t stand the circumstances that lead to all the pressure for early retirement. Unlike most of the people here, my greatest pleasure comes from watching the big races and not the gambling. This is like watching the leading scorer, runner, batter, passer etc... of your favorite sport get retired every few weeks until all you have left is the second string and you have to try to get excited about that. It blows!

 

[Silver Charm]

The money is too much and so is the risk. Things like this are a very tough blow to the fans who want to see these horses run back but it also gets even worse and more discouraging when the story line is \"It is just a set-back and he will be coming back evenutually, just not as soon we thought.\"

Bull.

Smarty was scheduled for the Haskell, then the Penn Derby, then it was over. He never ran again after the Belmont. This is deja vu all over again.

Even with mares such as Santa Catarina selling for $4.5M in foal it begins to become difficult to keep a well bred mare going. Seth Hancock has been following Madcap Escapades owner Bruce Lunsford around for months. The slightest tweek makes things senseless to keep forging on.

These kinds of horses are like comets, don\'t take your eyes off them or you will miss them. And the \"real good ones\" only come around every 75 years or so.

[shanahan]

Class - I could not agree more.  It\'s not the gambling aspect with regards to the greats - it\'s the exictement and being \"a fan\"...

For me, the first great was Cigar...when he came to Arlington, it was if the Beatles were there - you couldn\'t get 12 deep to the paddock, it was electric!

Having a place in HOt Springs, Smarty was certainly a hero and a cult - as is AA - but you are sooooo right, sometimes its about being a fan.  Anyone who has visited one of the farms in KY cannot come away with a different feeling about our great sport, and particularly about the great ones who play without pay...