Originally Posted by kentuckyrosesinmay
Yes, you are misinformed about whether or not you can tell if an animal does not move as well as they once did over the television screen.
And no I wasn't at Tampa. I have talked with several people in the business about this and have been doing this for awhile now. I said that the horses were not moving as well in that race, and they weren't. I didn't say that they were necessarily sore or lame. It was publicly known that Street Sense had issues before he ever made his first start back this year. In hindsight, the horse may not have liked the Tampa Bay Derby surface and was probably getting tired at the end of the race. When he ran in the BG Stakes, he was moving much stronger and better and proved that he could run through whatever problems that he has. At Churchill Downs, he was moving beautifully and training like a monster, and that is why I picked him to win the Derby.
On the other hand, AGS did just the opposite. AGS was not moving in that race as well as he moved as a two-year-old, and he proved in the Wood that he could not run through whatever problems he has to cause that kind of action. The Tampa Bay Derby did him in, and he has not been able to show his true ability since that race. Hopefully, Pletcher can get him straight and he can get back to his racing career in as short of an amount of time as possible because I think that he is one of the best of his generation.
Sometimes, these horses are not what you would necessarily call lame but you can tell that something isn't quite right with them when their action while racing is different from their previous race.
Someone who is known for his ability to judge horses in this manner in the horse racing industry agreed with me about these two horses in that particular race by watching them on the tape.
Also, not that the two year old sales have anything really to do with this, but I would also like to point out that trainers like Baffert who have a really good eye for horses do not even watch the previews live at most of the sales. They are sent the videos and can tell everything that they need to know by watching the video including if a horse is off or not. They then look at the Hip Numbers that they are interested in a few days before the sale.
Trainers like Ellis actually watch the horses work live, look at the horses the day after the works to check for soundness, and then rely heavily on the video to get a better idea of what they are looking at because you can judge the way a horse is traveling a lot better watching the videos than you can judge them by watching them go live.
Just like every knowledgeable person who have great reputations that I have talked to in this business about it, I can tell if a horse is sore in the walking ring or post parade easier on the TV than I can live. The truth of the matter is that you're going to see the same bad steps that they take over the TV as you do live.
It is the exact same principle as to why riders like me like to watch vidoes of their horses going. It is also why people like Dr. Bob Mowry teach his learner judges about judging horses through videos before they start their live work. It's just easier to see everything that they are doing.
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