Better Talk Now retired
 

Better Talk Now, winner of the 2004 John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf (gr. IT), has been retired from racing due to an injury sustained in the suspensory ligament of his left hind leg.

According to a statement released by trainer Graham Motion, the injury is believed to have occurred during training for an expected start in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (gr. IT) at Belmont Park on Oct. 3. The injury is not life threatening and will have no impact on Better Talk Now in retirement.

Better Talk Now made 51 starts in his racing career, finishing with 14 wins and 27 in the money finishes, and career earnings of $4,356,664. He started in 41 stakes races, including 24 grade I races. He was bred in Kentucky by Wimborne Farm.

Owner Bushwood Stables had recently announced the 10-year-old gelding, trained by Motion for eight seasons, would be retiring at the end of his 2009 racing year.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...-due-to-injury

NT

Some of Better Talk Now's greatest races:

2007 Manhattan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_K3r...rom=PL&index=4

2005 Man O' War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrwItk6elvs

2004 Breeders' Cup Turf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WmWas8JX9c

NT

Most recently when 2nd in the 2009 Sword Dancer

Cant believe these people are going to retire this horse when miracle cures are available in CA. Maybe Riot can contact them and share her take on the Veternarian literature that has been published. KG will tell them to race at least two or three more years because you know some 10 year olds are in better physical shape than some three year olds.

Imagine what a great story in 2011 this will be? A 12 year old BTN and an 10 year old Lava Man battling it out in Grade 1's!

He's one of my all time favorites. :(

Can't you block ligament issues with Cobra venom.. Why are they being so cautious.. Gez do all these trainers and owners watch logo.

I wouldn't tell them to race another couple of years at all. I just wouldn't tell them they were wrong if they decided to. Every horse of the same age doesn't have the same set of automatic physical conditions that comes with that age.

Also, don't forget Brass Hat in that same race.

How do you know?

Because I know that horses are athletes and no athlete is exactly the same physically because of age. Wear and tear varies along with the way they are conditioned.

G-d created no to horse equal..But man can clone a few remember its only a matter of time before Rachel 2 The Sequel comes

No athlete is the same. Duh.

Better Talk Now and Lava Man in their prime were like Mario Elie and Luc Longley. Sure they were champions but the environment they performed in enhanced their status.

To bring Mario Elie and Luc Longley out of retirement now would be ridiculous. They had a nice run.

Horses dont equal humans. When humans break their ankles they dont die. Humans dont founder, humans rarely die of colic. Humans know when to pull up. Horses dont.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that one athlete that's 40 is not the same as another athlete that's 40. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant at 40 will be in much better shape physically than Yao Ming or Shaquille O'Neal would be at that same age. To say that a certain age automatically means that there are going to be certain physical ailments that come alone with it is illogical. There are too many variable that go into determing these things. One horse might have raced 70 times, another might have run 30. One might have been running primarily in dirt sprints, another in turf routes. One might have run 12 times a year, the other five times a year. You don't know what kind of training and treatments each horse might have had. I just don't think you can look at his age and say this or that is going to happen because the things that people are expecting might happen may not happen......but could very well happen to a 4yo in the same race with him.

Yet you are comparing Better Talk Now and Lave Man to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. They clearly haven't accomplished what those two have. That's why my comparison to Mario Elie and Luc Longley is mo' valid and yours isn't.

But the point is to make you see how retarded it is. Don't you see that a 40 year old Longley coming out of retirement would be disastrous? Same thing with Lava Man.

Who the hell is comparing them in abilities? The ability or talent that each has or lacks is the last part of my argument. That's not what I'm talking about at all. I'm talking about physical condition and age. Period. Goodness.

I share this view, always exciting watching him make his late run, he had a nose for the grade 1's and really how can anyone knock that?

I agree that Lava Man was flattered by his enviroment, specifically of the fact he never performed well outside of Southern California against the really good ones like Invasor and Bernardini. He gained his accolades and fans by toying with pretty bad fields for a long time, while collecting monster purses for very little effort.

I do not see that with Better Talk Now. He beat some really nice horses like Kittens Joy and English Channel and had a knack for raining his game on the big stage in the big races. He never ducked anybody and won pretty much every significant turf race for his division with the exception of the Arlington Million. He was very underrated imo.

Well said, or how about his Manhattan win at the ripe old age of eight against a very solid field? His 3rd place finish this year beaten only two lengths by the leader of the division is pretty impressive as well.

He may not have won many of his final starts, but he was almost always competitive and still did a lot of good things. I was a huge fan and hope he has a great retirement.

NT

Just want to add, if there ever there was a jockey that fit a horse and vice versa, it would be Ramon and BTN. A symbiotic relationship.