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Originally Posted by Kasept
We talked extensively about Precisionist last week on ATRAB with Steve Haskin (Thursday's archives), and I had a long talk with his trainer Ross Fenstermaker about him. Fenstermaker joined us on Friday in the last hour.
I was just starting to become a race fan during his era, and had only vague recollections about his exploits. But after talking with Steve and Ross, can understand why the decision was made to bury him 'whole'. They only bury the great ones that way, and this was a great horse...
Curiously, despite an amazing record, multiple Gr. I wins going short or long, a great rivalry with Whittingham's Greinton, and 4 Breeders' Cup starts (2 SPR, 2 CLS), he seems to go underappreciated. Fenstermaker explained a few of his losses to me, and his third in the BC Classic behind Skywalker and Turkoman, and infertility, is likely the difference between his being just 'another Hall of Famer' and an immortal.
Specifically, Jerry Bailey on 26-1 Herat, destroyed Precisionist's (1.70-1 and 2nd choice) chances in the race, and nearly ruined him completely. Bailey drove Precisionist and Gary Stevens into the rail TWICE, once entering the backstretch and then later near the 6f mark. Stevens lost ground on both occasions, was third by less than 3L, and Precisionist exited the race with a fractured ankle. He was to enter stud service, but proved infertile and was returned to the races more than a year later...
I've got a few more Precisionist stories that Fenstermaker told me, but I'm going to write a piece about him after talking to McCarron, and will save them for that. It's remarkable to me that it takes the death of a great champion like this before we find out about how superb a runner he was... I can't understand why the game does such a rotten job utilizing the exploits of it's other great champions. This was clearly a special horse, and I'm more than a bit chagrined that I knew next to nothing about him before last week...
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