Bluegrass Cat retired due to pastern injury

[Danzig]

bluegrass cat looked fine. didn't look tired, pletcher did a good job getting him there. bernardini was better yesterday, that's all.

pace makes the race. bernardini had things his way from start to finish. still hasn't been eyeballed. wonder if he ever will be....

[Betsy]

Originally Posted by Danzig188

bluegrass cat looked fine. didn't look tired, pletcher did a good job getting him there. bernardini was better yesterday, that's all.

pace makes the race. bernardini had things his way from start to finish. still hasn't been eyeballed. wonder if he ever will be....

If there is legitimate speed in the race, Bernardini will be a stalker; I suspect that if there is more than one speed, he'll revert to his Preakness tactics (about 5 lengths off the lead). It will be hard for him to be eyeballed simply because he has such a brilliant turn of foot; he's often by horses before they have a chance to respond. However, he'll be meeting really good older horses in the Gold Cup, so we won't have to wait very long to see how he responds to that kind of pressure. Those horses are tough, experienced and talented.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by Danzig188

bluegrass cat looked fine. didn't look tired, pletcher did a good job getting him there. bernardini was better yesterday, that's all.

pace makes the race. bernardini had things his way from start to finish. still hasn't been eyeballed. wonder if he ever will be....

Amen.

The way he ran was proof that horses can run very well off of 20 day layoffs. He smoked the rest of the field, and if Bernardini wasn't in the 3 year old class, he would have easily asserted himself to the top of the class. The short layoff is NOT an excuse for the injury.

[randallscott35]

This is not a surprise at all....Why a horse that was sound his whole career needed wraps added yesterday was a clear sign something might be amiss. Plus he was a washed out mess. I was shocked he hit the board. Wraps added from Pletcher is a sign he's trying to squeeze out another race or two out of the horse....This makes perfect sense.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by randallscott35

This is not a surprise at all....Why a horse that was sound his whole career needed wraps added yesterday was a clear sign something might be amiss. Plus he was a washed out mess. I was shocked he hit the board. Wraps added from Pletcher is a sign he's trying to squeeze out another race or two out of the horse....This makes perfect sense.

had winstar not pressed it, pletcher would never have come back yesterday off 20 days...no bernardini, maybe he would have. no doubt the wraps were just one more thing on the list to help out the situation. TAP did everything he could. and now he's lost his best 3 yo. i bet he's beyond p'od.

[sumitas]

very talented horse but 20 days was not enough between races.

[somerfrost]

Originally Posted by sumitas

very talented horse but 20 days was not enough between races.

Well, there is less than that between the Derby and Preakness every year so...I think it depends on the horse and about six million other factors! Easy to say now that it was too short...whether it had anything to do with the injury...pure speculation again! I will say this, Bluegrass Cat made a quick move on the leader coming out of the far turn and appeared to get almost even with him then suddenly seemed empty...was it Bernardini simply finding another gear, the Cat hitting the wall, the short layoff, or did the injury occur there? The final quarter was solid but not spectacular...I want to watch the replay of that part a few times!

[Pedigree Ann]

Originally Posted by sumitas

very talented horse but 20 days was not enough between races.

That's a load of horse-hockey, as Col. Potter would say. Horses do it all the time; only these fancy stallion prospects can't do it, according to their trainers. Point Given did it (won the Haskell and Travers), but he was the best horse. Bluegrass isn't as good a horse as Bernardini; he's a good horse, no question, just not as good as some others in his crop (Barbaro included).

As to the injury; an athlete is more likely to be injured if he/she is trying to do more - run faster or farther, jump higher - than he/she has done before or than he is prepared to do. Trying to keep up with a superior athlete is falls into that category. Horses like Bluegrass, who keep on trying, are more likely to get hurt that way than a wussy horse. He wouldn't throw in the towel and ran so hard he hurt himself. Same thing happened to Lion Heart a couple of years ago; couldn't get 10f on a dry track, but kept on trying till he hurt himself.

Originally Posted by Pedigree Ann

Horses like Bluegrass, who keep on trying, are more likely to get hurt that way than a wussy horse.

OK ... you've convinced me ... now I know you're absolutely nuts.

The only way we know that a horse is the type who always keeps trying ... is to observe him keep trying. And the only way we can observe that ... is if he races ... something which injured horses can't do.

You fancy yourself as the great data copier and paster ... so ... go find some data to copy and paste ... to support this ridiculous yarn that you're trying to foist off on the rest of us.