breakdowns

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by richard burch

its hard to explain a breakdown to a 7 year old kid. those kids are racing's future.

Weren't the seven year olds in 1950 or 1965 or 1980 "racing's future" at those times? It isn't like there weren't racetrack fatalities in those decades to explain as well. Somehow the sport survived.
I understand that the culture is slightly different now with regards to animals than it was in some past decades, but people having to explain to kids what happened to a horse that just broke down is sadly - like the breakdowns themselves - one of the enduring and unpleasant aspects of this otherwise wonderful game.
Should people in the game work to reduce the number of racetrack fatalities? Absolutely. But eliminating them altogether is beyond impossible.

[eajinabi]

3 horses a day??? Thats all? How many dogs get put down a day???? well its sure helluva lot more than three and the vast majority of the dogs put down are done by the SPCA

[Rupert Pupkin]

There was a bad breakdown today(Wednesday) at Hollywood in the 6th race. Wellnessfast looked like he was about to take the lead inside the 1/16th pole when he broke down. It looked bad. I haven't heard it officially but I'm sure he was euthanized.

[sumitas]

Is it one of those "bad step" excuses ? Or was it a continuation of microscopic fractures that culminated in a catostrophic breakdown ?

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

There was a bad breakdown today(Wednesday) at Hollywood in the 6th race. Wellnessfast looked like he was about to take the lead inside the 1/16th pole when he broke down. It looked bad. I haven't heard it officially but I'm sure he was euthanized.

Seems like the horses who drop like that are often the ones who break down or get pulled up. For instance, cross ya fingers when Austie runs for a 12,500 claiming price today.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by SCUDSBROTHER

Seems like the horses who drop like that are often the ones who break down or get pulled up. For instance, cross ya fingers when Austie runs for a 12,500 claiming price today.

Yes, absolutely. In general, when a horse is taking a big class drop there is a reason for it. In a high percentage of those cases, the horse has a serious physical problem and that is the reason for the class drop.

[eajinabi]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

Yes, absolutely. In general, when a horse is taking a big class drop there is a reason for it. In a high percentage of those cases, the horse has a serious physical problem and that is the reason for the class drop.

The same thing happened at GG few weeks ago. Hollendoffer drops a horse from ALW to the cheapest of the cheap claiming race (was 1 to 5) and the horse breaks his leg (race was on Turf).

[sumitas]

I see Austie scratched.