Jackson passes on Belmont with Rachel Alexandra

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

Sorry, but I usually take "the horse's best interest" to be referring to health. I doubt Rachel cares if she loses at the Belmont, so if she's sound and they're just ducking, I don't want to hear this "long-term health" nonsense.

As you said, there have been some great horses such as Curlin that ran well in all three legs of the Triple Crown and then were still able to run some more great races later in the year. But there aren't many horses that can do that. There have been far more horses that were either never the same or who needed a long rest to recover. And most trainers know this. That is why they didn't run Street Sense in the Belmont. They knew there was a high probability that it would knock him out, so they decided to skip the race.