Scratches

[Cannon Shell]

This all of course assumes that the horse in questioned is being scratched because of a non-physical reason. There are plenty of times when a horse isnt quite right due to a minor fever, sore foot, slight bout of colic, etc that dont require much time off but wouldn't allow a horse to be even close to his/her best on that day. A 30 days scratch rule would lead to more of these types being run with the jockey under instructions to just "get them around there" as so often happens in off the turf races at places like Tampa where a scratch may mean you may not get back in for 3 months. I'm not sure a rule that would have a greater % of horses in a given field not really trying is a good thing.