[King Glorious]

So am I to believe that it's standard procedure in racing that once plans are made and announced, they might as well be written in stone and taken as true fact all the time? Didn't Tim Ritchie tell us all summer that Afleet Alex was coming back and that he was 99% healthy......only to retire him without racing again? Weren't we told that Quality Road's issues were minor and would only keep him out a couple of days of training..........only to have him miss the Derby and the next several months of racing? Wasn't Azeri done racing.....only to be winning grade one races the next year with another trainer? Plans and intentions one day can change and it doesn't have to mean the people were being liars the whole time.

Why is Lava Man more at risk than Jambalaya? Or Brass Hat? Or Da Hoss? Or any other horse out there racing? If they bring him back and the horse finishes last a couple of times, is he going to be laying in his stall crying and feeling embarrassed and thinking "damn, there goes my legacy"? That legacy and memory stuff is for the human fans. The horse couldn't care less about it. Seeing him perform below his old standards would bother his fans and they don't want to see it. People always talk about doing what's right for the horse. If they really want to do that, they would never saddle them up, pump them full of drugs, put a little man on their back, and make them race. And for good measure, when they are out there trying hard and they get tires, they get whipped. People need to quit being naive. Probably 90-95% of the time, people are doing what's best for them. If it's good for the horse too, that's just an added bonus. Saying that, the owners/trainer of Lava Man are more than likely doing what's best for them. But that doesn't automatically mean that what they are doing is hurting Lava Man.