The Story "Luck" Should Have Been Telling

[moosepalm]

NY Times article written by breeder of Monarchos.

http://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/end-of-luck-and-racings-future/?scp=2&sq=luck&st=cse

[shanahan]

the comments from people are interesting, thanks for posting this.  I agree with the one  - and several others outside this article - who thought the show could easily have continued using stock racing film.  It was really about the people, not the horse.

[sighthound]

On the day "Luck" was canceled, the industry was again ballyhooing the return of "the sale horse" and the extraordinary profits connected with $500,000 and $800,000 prices being paid for horses at a Florida 2-year-old in training auction. Barely 24 months old and younger, these horses invariably had earned their value by running an eighth of a mile in 10 1/2 seconds or less, or a quarter-mile in 20 seconds and change. They did this after weeks of training for that one run down the track at speeds and levels of stress never again required for a successful racing career.

As an aside, I recall when Keeneland publicly disparaged training sales, refused to hold them, saying they were not good for the health of the young horse.

But then the money flowed into them.

[Kasept]

Because of unsoundness, Animal Kingdom, the winner of the 2011 Derby, has run only one allowance race since, and this week he was benched again for at least three months while he recovers from a stress fracture. Already this year some of the most promising young aspirants for the 2012 Triple Crown have been sidelined by stress fractures. And there by the wayside along with them are all the reform efforts to curtail the industry's obsession with speed.

Squires just can\'t help himself. He was on his way to making a coherent argument when as in \'Headless Horsemen\', he just has to go over the top. Animal Kingdom has won once since Derby because of \'unsoundness\'? Who knew... Here I was duped into believing he missed the second half of \'11 when mauled and injured in the Belmont.

And Animal Kingdom is included in references to the \'industry\'s obsession with speed\'? Last time I looked at his pedigree Animal Kingdom was the product of a Brazilian-bred turf miler sire and German-bred endurance mare dam that won all her important races at 10f and beyond. Yup.. there\'s that wacky American breeding obsession with speed on speed.

Squires\' bitterness over his inability to breed another Monarchos is evident in every screed against the industry he pens.

[miff]

\"Squires\' bitterness over his inability to breed another Monarchos is evident in every screed against the industry he pens\"

Kasept,

Many breeders on the \"clean up the game stump\" have one thing in common, they are breeding non competitive slow horses in spite of breeding their black type mares to top stallions. Won\'t name the names but I\'ve heard the same top breeding guys crying about being cheated by drugs for years now. Strange but when the horses they bred were winning alot, you never heard a word.


Mike