Heatseeker retired with suspensory injury

[Lost Cause]

The top west coast horse is now out of action..

http://www.drf.com/news/article/95929.html

[fkach]

It never ends. What a shame. He was developing into a very nice horse.

[Ill-bred]

When the proponents of the synthetic tracks discuss their safety record, they conveniently leave out the increase in soft tissue injuries.

[miff]

Ill Bred,

Agree, but most of the proponents of artificial surfaces focus on breakdowns, which is all the rave now, as opposed to the increase in certain types of injuries. The reduced breakdown rate trumps all.


Mike

[Ill-bred]

I guess from an animal welfare standpoint that makes sense.

But when people say the syntetic tracks keep horses sound and racing, it is a bit disingenuous to not consider the soft tissue injuries, which by most accounts, are on the rise. In this case, it claimed the best handicap horse on the West Coast.

[EJXD2]

Ill-bred Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But when people say the syntetic tracks keep horses sound and racing, it is a bit > disingenuous to not consider the soft tissue injuries, which by most accounts,
> are on the rise. In this case, it claimed the best handicap horse on the West
> Coast.
>
Dude, just look at the field sizes in Southern California. Remember when racing there was a laughing stock because of five- and six-horse fields?

Clearly, synthetic surfaces have helped more horses race.

[slewzapper]

Heatseeker had ankle issues for quite a while - you could just as easily say training and racing on all-weather tracks were responsible for extending his career as far as it did, as compared to doing the same on dirt surfaces. Proponents and critics can spin this any way they prefer.

Bet Hollendorfer regrets that bullet work given what transpired afterwards.

Gonna miss this one...anyone recall a horse moving up after leaving the Frankel barn?

[sighthound]

A shame they won\'t even try and take the 4-6 months bring him back, chosing to jump straight to retirement and try and get stallion $$ instead.

And it continues to amaze me how many owners/trainers, even the good ones, dink around with a little swelling here, a little there, rather than being willing to spend the few dollars to ultrasound it, and find out what the hell is going on now, today?  You have a fear something \'could\' be wrong, and yet you choose to mess around wasting time (pretending it\'s not there?  hoping it will go away?) and risking further injury if it really \"is\" something?

[richiebee]

EJXD2 Wrote:

> Dude, just look at the field sizes in Southern
> California. Remember when racing there was a
> laughing stock because of five- and six-horse
> fields?
>
> Clearly, synthetic surfaces have helped more
> horses race.


EJ:

While synthetic surfaces may \"have helped more horses race\", field size in
California and New York has been bolstered by a)State Bred racing; b)con-
ditioned claiming races and c) opening up turf racing to cheaper animals.

The idea is to get large fields of QUALITY animals at the major racing venues
and it certainly could be done if racing officials were not beholden to state
breeding interests and the trainers who maintain large strings of horses
stabled on racetrack grounds. These trainers, such as Todd Pletcher, use the
stable areas as training centers for stock which may be 60 - 90 days away from
a race.

I will mention for the umpteenth time the great dichotomy in horse racing-- the
quality of racing and racehorses has been diminished radically in the last 20 -
30 years, but horseplayers have not really been that concerned because there
are so many new ways in which to bet on this inferior product-- internet
wagering, multi race wagers, multi- state multi- race wagers, etc. So while the
quality of horses racing in NY was far better in 1978 than it is in 2008 (my
opinion), it was very difficult to accumulate a bankroll given the wagering
menu offered. As best as I can recall, the wagering menu at the NYRA tracks in
the mid 70s was something like this-- WPS and exacta on every race, daily
double races 1/2 and 8/9, quinella races 2 and 4, trifecta on last race only.

Abolish state bred racing in NY and California, except for state bred stake
races. Give weight to state breds when they compete against open company. One
of the great things about Saratoga used to be that trainers would ship in from
Canada and the midwest and stable and race at Saratoga. I am sure a lot of
these trainers have been discouraged from traveling to the Spa in recent years
after looking at a condition book which is too heavily burdened with NYB races.

In a slightly unrelated matter, it looks like Ellis Park, once affectionately
known as the \"pea patch\" (they used to grow soybeans in the infield), will race
over the summer. From a horseplayer\'s point of view, I think Ellis is typical
of many smaller tracks currently operating in the US-- people will bet on Ellis
races if they are running, but very few horseplayers would lament Ellis if it
was gone. Some of these smaller tracks should be eliminated; their main purpose
is to provide a cushion for the excessive number of horses which are bred in
the US each year.

I know the fashionable issue is Drugs in Racing,but what really needs to be
worked on is reducing the number of racetracks and racing days, and reducing
the number of horses being bred each year. The result would be a return to
quality racing with larger fields at the larger venues.

One of the great travesties in this industry/sport is that a young thoroughbred
can be pinhooked 2 or 3 times, resulting in large profits for each pinhooker,
profits which in many cases dwarf the horse\'s eventual earnings (if any) on the
racetrack. Good for commercial breeders, but probably not good for the sport.

Looking forward to drinking a liberal dose of TG Kool Aid at the Spa in 3 weeks.
Anyone planning on being there opening weekend?

[Thehoarsehorseplayer]

David Halberstam used a great line many years ago (though, I only read it for the first time the other night) when writing about what he considered a dilution in the quality of professional footbal caused by expansion.  \"More and more of less and less.\"

Seems to capture the present state of Racing also.  Could even be the official slogan of the NTRA. \" Horse Racing 2008: More and more of less and less.\"

[fkach]

>Abolish state bred racing in NY and California, except for state bred stake
races. Give weight to state breds when they compete against open company. <

Of course this won\'t happen because no one with any power is actually interested in what\'s best for the game, what\'s fair, what free markets would dictate, merit, or anything even resembling the world I would like to live in.

It\'s all about using corrupt and incompetent people in government to advance personal self centered agendas.

What could be more obvious than the notion that if you subsidize something you will get more of it (in this case low quality statebred racing)?

[Ill-bred]

I much prefer the statebred model where you give them exra purse money for winning or finishing itm vs. open company. That encourages the statebred breeders to strive for better horses, instead of rewarding mediocrity.

The increase in statebred racing was very noticeable at Saratoga last year, and it will probably be the same this year. Note the stakes schedule, as there are days such as Saturday, August 9, when the $100,000 Yaddo H. for statebreds is the FEATURE race!!?? Of course, that is Arlington Million day, but still...

[jimbo66]

That August 9th feature is very strange.  It looks like they moved the Sword Dancer and the Alabama to the same day.  They used to be on separate weekends.  I used to refer to the 6 weeks at Sarataga as:

Whitney/Jim Dandy Weekend

Test/Diana weekend

Alabama weekend

Sword Dancer weekend

Travers weekend

Hopeful weekend

Not sure why they moved the Yaddo to be the key feature race of that entire weekend.  I, for one, wouldn\'t go up to Saratoga that weekend.

[TGJB]

Jimbo-- to be fair about it, they have SIX 100k stakes on the card on August 9th.

[Ill-bred]

TGJB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jimbo-- to be fair about it, they have SIX 100k
> stakes on the card on August 9th.


Here is NYRA\'s link to the Saratoga stakes schedule:

http://www.nyra.com/Saratoga/Stakes/StakeSchedule.shtml

I only see one stake on 8/9/08 (?).