"Spaced" Races And "Fresh" Horses Are Killing The Sport

Originally Posted by Rupert

This isn't brain surgery. It's not that complicated. Phalaris' argument would be the same as arguing that people who take a lot of sick days from work are sick more often than people that don't take a lot of sick days. Therefore, taking sick days from work must be what is causing these people to get sick. If these people simply did not take sick days, then they wouldn't be sick. This is obviously an absurd argument. Taking sick days is not causing people to get sick. It's the opposite. People being sick is causing them to take sick days.

Some of you guys come up with these ludicrous theories, that you would know were absurd if you had any knowledgs about the business. There is practically nobody in the business who intentionally does not run their horses as 2 year olds.

As to human sick days ... people wouldn't take as many of them if they weren't paid for them. Stop paying someone when they're out "sicK" ... and the number of sick days decreases dramatically.

As to horses ... you're mostly missing the point.

I don't have any large base of hard data to support it ... but I do suspect ... from years of observation .. that racing horses early and more often is more likely to result in their becoming more physically fit and able to endure the hardships of a career as a professional athlete.

Racing 3f in February ... learning to break alertly from the gate ... learning to maneuver in a pack ... learning how to dig down and give a little more ... is good preparation for the future.

Not every horse will be ready to do that .... and not every one who tries will succeed. But ... on the whole ... the methodology employed 40 years ago and more ... produced a higher percentage of professional athletes who could race 12, 15, 18 times per year without serious injury ... than today's "spacing" and "fresh horse" theories do.

Again without hard numbers ... it just seems that more G1-level horses break down and have shortened careers today ... than they did in the past ... and ...

... and this lack of frequent appearances by the best-quality horses is killing off interest in the sport.