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Originally Posted by Danzig
yeah, i know.
it's just that many think horses should be around longer, but no one seems able or willing to come up with incentives to actually keep horses on the track. obviously you have to make racing more lucrative-right now purses can't compete with potential stud fees.
i was just throwing it out there...
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It's an interesting idea to propose- but I think there's just no way, with 100+ books that racing could ever make it more lucrative than breeding, and since racing runs on gambling dollars, not fan dollars, there's no reason for racing to care. Plus, the breeding market seems to run on what will sell- I remember Chuck (I think it was Chuck) saying months ago he didn't think Big Brown's fee would be as high as some predicted on account of him being by Boundary. I know a trainer (I can't remember which one) once said, "I don't care who he's by; I care who he can run by," but with so many breeding to sell, not race, they care more who he's by. So even with one big runner, how much will it really help the sire? Real Quiet has had a couple of big horses, but it doesn't make him a hot sire. And it's so expensive to keep a horse in training- I imagine simple marketing might be cheaper. And, on top of that, it seems to me like the breeding side is really susceptible to what I think of as, "new shiny"- always looking for the next big thing, rather than giving due to long-term sires who turn out runners year after year, but maybe not world-class ones. Sires who were top runners seem to get their best chances before any of their foals see the track.
Of course, as I've said, I know next to nothing about breeding, so I may be totally wrong.
I really think the only way to see horses racing at 4 is for the Jockey Club to pass rules that racing thoroughbreds must be sired by horses who are at least 5 years old. That, or limit stallion books. And the breeding market has such control I don't think it'll ever happen. If the Jockey Club could figure out ways to make money from older runners (merchandising, whatever), they'd have motive to, but there isn't any reason to.
Which doesn't make me happy about it, either, Danzig. I'd love to see more of the 3-year-old stars run at 4, too.