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Old 12-14-2006, 08:46 AM
oracle80
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SniperSB23
I agree 100%. I think it is the single change that would do the most to save the sport. It would keep the top horses on the track longer and that is my biggest gripe with the sport. We'd have Bernardini, Henny Hughes, Aussie Rule, and Ivan Denisovich all coming back next year for starters.
Breeding is free market and trade enterprise and its so completely unrealistic to think that courts would uphold such an edict. It would be laughed out on the first challenge. You can't tell people what to do with their property. I understand the sentiment, but what would you suggest a guy with a horse who has been injured do if the hores has been injured at age two or three?

To give an answer to this question that is realistic and could actually be done, I'd find a way to get purses in graded stakes races raised to a level which would encourage and make it financially feasible to race horses on at older ages. In other words I think you guys are in the right church but the wrong pew. The reason people retire horses early these days is because the proportion of money you can race for and earn as compared to the money you can get in the shed is way out of whack. The insuranec alone on a great stallion prospect or broodmare is far more than they can earn racing another year after you pay expenses and the trainer and jockey 10% apiece. A horse that earns 3 million in one year really only nets his owner about 2.3 million after expenses. It simply makes no sense to race on these days.
How many horses earn 3 million a year? 1-5? Maybe? none? maybe?
If you made grade ones worth a minimum of 1 million, grade 2's a minimum of 500,000 and grade 3's a minimum of 250 grand, TRUST me people would be glad to race on!!!! You would still lose the 1-5 VERY best prospects and those who are injured, but the fringe very best horses would indeed race on with the lure of plenty of cash to go after. You'd also increase field sizes in thesegrade one events which have become like 4-6 horse harness races where they take single file order with uncontested paces. The "keepaway" from teh other good horses would end, for a million bucks a crack you could bet your ass that people would race in more spots.
You'd also see owners abandoning a specific 4 race campaign aimed at the BC. They'd race all year and say if we make the BC great, but if we don't thats ok as well.
It would also make more than 5 days a year "big days" at the racetrack. In addition people may start trying to breed a bit more towards the performance side instead of just the commercial side. The reason the breed has slipped so badly is that the robber barons of yesteryear used to breed to sell and RACE with equal interest. As a matter of fact many just bred to RACE. They chose matings and sires that weren't just an attempt to get a flashy worker in February at a 2YO in training sale, or to break their maiden in rocketship time in June going 5F.
The bottom line is that all the bitching and moaning about the game really boils down to the fact the economically it makes absolutely no sense for anyone to race on or race often with a good horse.
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