[quote=Danzig188]than why are they continuing on with him?? if something IS wrong, why keep going? if it's not serious enough to warrant stopping, than it isn't serious enough to keep him from competing, right?
No, that's not true. He may have a little problem that doesn't seem to be bothering him too much in the morning, but in the morning he's not even close to being all out. They don't want to inject him if they don't have to, so if they don't think the problem is bothering him, they may leave it alone. But then when the horse runs terrible, they realize that the problem is bothering him and they need to treat it next time. This type of thing happens all the time.
That is why you can't always throw out a horse based on one bad race. There is a good chance that the bad race was due to something physical. But there is also a good chance that they can treat it and get one or two more races out of the horse.
This is a dilemma that trainers face all the time. For example, let's say that Bernardini comes out of his next race with a pretty puffy ankle. Let's say the vet says that he needs two months off. The vet also tells them that they can probably get one or more two more races out of him if they inject him, but they will risk doing some permanent injury to the ankle. What should they do? Some of you may think it's a no-brainer and that they should not run the horse. If they were planning on retiring him at the end of the year any way, they would probably take a shot and try to win the BC Classic. If they are planning on running him next year, they still would not necessarily turn him out. They may take a shot and run him in the BC Classic and just hope that the ankle doesn't get any worse. If they are cautious they would turn him out to the farm immediately to make sure that he comes back 100% next year.
Last edited by Rupert Pupkin : 08-15-2006 at 08:54 PM.
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