The Triple Crown needs Restructuring

[ezgoer89]

Take this for what it\'s worth, but two separate times during the ESPN coverage on Saturday, Jerry Bailey speculated Barbaro was not the same horse as in Kentucky. He based this on the fact Barbaro was pacing extensively in his stall in Baltimore, but in Kentucky he was like a statue, always with his head out of the stall looking around.  Bailey, of course, did not try to guess what was causing this, but definitely stated something was amiss.

jmetro Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Until Barbaro\'s vet, or perhaps Matz himself,
> speaks about what may, or may not, have been going
> on with this horse in his training leading up to
> the Preakness no one will know exactly what caused
> his breaking down.
>
> He could have walked out of his stall Saturday
> morning, saw an empty Coke can in the shedrow, and
> gone ape sh*t for all we know.
>
> Everyone can speculate all they want, right now
> that\'s all we have.
>
>
>
>

[imallin]

richiebee,

Holding Showing Up out of the Derby was the correct move for the horse. But, i actually agree with the entry of that horse because if you dont enter him, one other horse gets into the race....if you owned barbaro too, i dont think its a good idea to take a chance to let an extra horse in the gate..what if that 21st shooter (sunriver?) gets into the race and beats you. Then, you have to live with knowing you lost a once in a lifetime shot at the Ky Derby because you didn\'t enter your other horse who was eligible.

I know the odds are slim that the horse who gets in instead of Showing UP actually beats Barbaro, but why take the shot?

Also, as well as showing up raced, he theoretically could have won. If you have a shot at winning the KyD you have to take it i believe.

[Silver Charm]

>How \'bout our boy Frank S. up there on the podium yapping away \"that\'s part of horseracing\"...

For Frank it all similar to corporate contaminated waste being dumped in rivers or under the table political bribes. \"That\'s part of doing business.\"

Barbaro had been handled brilliantly with white gloves and horses are creatures of habit. Once he had been asked to wheel back in two weeks the horse had no idea what was going on. Probably had more to do with the agitation than anything else.

You mentioning the Breeders Cup and look at how it has effected the pre-race scheduling of the preps. Even the Criple Crown Preps have seen their schedules spaced out longer except for the Criple Crown itself.

Only 350 days ninteen hours nine minutes and forty two seconds until next years Criple Crown starts shorten the careers of promising 2007 three year olds.

Can\'t Wait.....  

[richiebee]

Imallin:

At the time they entered Showing Up in the Derby, I thought that their intention would be to scratch him on the morning of the race, and I posted to that effect. That strategy (a) would have excluded Sunriver, (b) would have reduced the traffic jam to 19 from 20 and (c)provided insurance against a Barbaro injury be tween Derby entry time and Derby post time.

[imallin]

They didn\'t want to pull a pegram and scratch when they never intended on running. I think an AE list would solve the problem of guys entering who don\'t plan on running.

Yeah, the smart thing to do would be enter and scratch.

[Frost King]

Barbaro was insured for $24 million and he has a stud value of at least $100 million.

[imallin]

How do you know Barbaro was insured for 24m? Did you read that on a website somewhere?

[jmetro]

ezgoer89 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Take this for what it\'s worth, but two separate
> times during the ESPN coverage on Saturday, Jerry
> Bailey speculated Barbaro was not the same horse
> as in Kentucky. He based this on the fact Barbaro
> was pacing extensively in his stall in Baltimore,
> but in Kentucky he was like a statue, always with
> his head out of the stall looking around.  Bailey,
> of course, did not try to guess what was causing
> this, but definitely stated something was amiss.
>


Didn\'t Barbaro ship in the day of the race?  Maybe they should have brought him in earlier and let him get familiar with the surroundings....hindsight and speculation.

[Silver Charm]

Or skipped the Preakness and waited for the Belmont or headed to Virginia for the Bonus enhanced grass series (as Andy Beyer suggested) coming up later this mid-summer.

Next year the Derby winner should insist that PIMLICO pay for the insurance premium and the same for BELMONT if they insist on raming the same Criple Crown timeline down his throat.

[DeathBredon]

Setting aside Deranged Luckas, it is still clear that the bred is losing hardiness.  American dirt horses have drastically reduced their annual campaignes as have European turf horses.  Good horses with humane trainers are still breaking down too often.

IMHO, perhaps a major part of the equation is to improve the strength and stamina of the bred by banning all race day medications.  Only horses that run fast AND CLEAN should to to the breeding shed.  Owners won\'t like having fast horses that they can\'t race because \"the just need a little help from their friends,\" but it is a price that needs to be paid.  This way, we get brillance and endurance.

Maybe as a compromise, claiming races could allow medications, but Maiden, Allowance and Stakes races would be clean.

As a collateral benefit to strengthen the breed, we could increase weight imposts for humane treatment of jockeys.

Don\'t get me wrong, perhaps better spacing of our Classics (one spring, one summer, one fall?) and polytracks or deeper tracks, more grass racing, etc, are good moves too.  But the bottomline is that Thoroughbred racing is about improving the breed.  As is, we have sacrificed all for brilliance, which results in tragedy all to often.  Time to change.

[ezgoer89]

jmetro Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Didn\'t Barbaro ship in the day of the race?  Maybe
> they should have brought him in earlier and let
> him get familiar with the
> surroundings....hindsight and speculation.


No, I believe he shipped on Friday.  SNS shipped on Sat. morning from Laurel.

[gatodelsol]

First let me say that any day that any horse breaks down at any track is a bad day for racing and leaves me with an empty feeling whether I\'ve won or lost (particularly when I am there to witness it in person).  But I\'m also keenly aware of the fact that if it weren\'t for the crazy owners and trainers that insist on running short-priced favorites on short rest coming off significant tops, there would not be very many really good betting opportunities out there.  If you are really concerned about all horses, then why not just make a rule that any horse that runs within let\'s say 6 Beyer points of his top or better, has to wait 4 weeks before it can race again.  This would save many more horse lives than just restructuring the TC races.  

[imallin]

I believe that after the Derby, there should be a racing rule that all horses have to have an independent vet x ray them, mri them and check them out from head to toe and if they don\'t pass a stringent physical exam, they are not allowed to race for a month or more.

[miff]

\"I believe that after the Derby, there should be a racing rule that all horses have to have an independent vet x ray them, mri them and check them out from head to toe and if they don\'t pass a stringent physical exam, they are not allowed to race for a month or more.\"


Imallin,

Why not after every race,even $4k claimers at Penn National?


Mike

[bellsbendboy]

In most jurisdictions, every horse entered is checked on race day by the track  vetinarian, who also administers any medications. bbb