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Old 09-04-2006, 03:21 PM
Cunningham Racing
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danzig188
i thought it was barbaros front leg action that was mentioned....and he had a bad step with his back leg. or am i missing something? is bad action up front a cause for alarm regarding the hind legs? would it be that the horse is 'leaping' somewhat?

or is the fact that barbaro took a bad step just coincidental to him having high action up front?
Yes, because as I mentioned last week in the Bluegrass Cat thread when he broke down was that if someting is ailing a horse up front, they will always acknowledge the pain ad take care of themselves by over-compensating and transferring all of their wait to the rear end - which makes for a very stressful situation on the rear legs whe running 40 MPH with a man on your back....

Many very sharp horsemen whos opinion I value have told me that when a horse that has fair to good comformation breaks down - it is usually a result of him doing so because something else was bothering him that forced the over-compensation of weight shift to the "good" legs....think about it...it really makes a world of sense...

Bluegrass Cat ran the other day with front wraps for the first time and he wound up coming out of the race with a broken rear leg.....not saying that it is a coindicence but it at least begs the question....

Same with Barbaro...he was a huge, heavy animal who was very fast and had just breezed 46 flat at CD ad then ran lights out fast in the grueling Derby...now, he is preparing for the Preakness two-weeks later and he is restless in the gate - maybe because something was stinging him and he knew what was about to happen (horses aren't dumb when it comes to taking care of themselves) - ad when he broke he over compensated for the concussion on the front end and put too much stress on the rear end with his 1,300-pound frame trying to get into gear...then, snap.....Remember, he has VERY high action like a turf horse due to his pedigree and when he hits the ground he did slap it pretty darn hard for a horse of his size....on top of that, he ran over the God-awful Gulfstream Park track twice before the Derby that broke SEVERAL of horses down and is reknowned for it's horrificly hard training surface by many top horseman.....Was there really another cause for why Matz chose to sit Barabaro out for that long layoff coming up to the Derby???

....Food for thought....

AND NO, I do not think there was a conspiracy with Barabro's health!!!

...Let me make that very clear...I'm simply pointing out a series of events that are factual that could not have been a coincidence....

Remember, no matter how good of a horseman you are, very few of them actually catch something wrong with there horses from a health standpoint when it first occurs...it is too damn tough ad anybody out there that understands the area of which I' talking about knows what I'm talking about....Look at Lost in the Fog for example...hell, he could have and probably did have tumors growing in him whe he ran in the Breeders' Cup last year......ad he defiantely had them when he won at Churchill Downs earlier this year in impressive fashion...

The bottomline is that horses are fragile ad can go bad at any minute...their bodies are set up to FAIL for what we put them through in this game...ad last of all, no matter how good a horseman is, many still don't discover whe their horses are hurting until something else happens down the line....pure factad any smart track vet will tell you the same....
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