I’m addressing this post to Holy55 who seems pretty distraught, but it applies equally to the fairly large contingent that want to restrict what is said at times like these.

Holy55,

Winning a bet can be done many ways. It can be done with selecting the best horse, it can be done by selecting when the best horse is due to go off and many other ways as well. That said, I did not believe Barbaro was the best horse or the best Derby Winner ever and had no emotional attachment to him one way or the other. On the contrary, I held his very light and heavily spaced race schedule in contempt and considered him vulnerable upon it, especially in consideration of the “top” in his last and the significant figure improvement off his two year old form. In other words, I thought he was maxed out. Additionally, he was not my Derby horse and winning with bias and good fortune there made him vulnerable in my eyes. His luck changed 180 Degrees from the Derby is all. It went as bad as it had been good, even worse. That Gate break out was more than an omen. I knew immediately he was finishing off the board. A handicapper jumps at those opportunities and I’m not attached enough to any horse to let sentimentality influence me in how I bet or to not take the opportunity or tell the tale, certainly not with a vulnerable 1-2 as the target.

Barbaro was managed carefully due to issues and its likely those issues manifested themselves in the Preakness. It may be callous. It may be cruel, but I was counting upon those issues, I bet upon them. It’s a cruel world, survival of the fittest, for both horses upon the track and bettors risking their money. Two weeks ago I had almost as bad a race as Barbaro did in the Preakness. I may be a moron but I cashed the Preakness and bet against the Favorite in part because I did not believe he was physically ready. That gate rush told me he was cooked and the hair stood up on the back of my neck because I KNEW I had him.

This forum is not about horse love. That said I have a warriors respect for the animals. The best of them are soldiers of the finest order. If Barbaro joins Go For Wand, Ruffian and Timely Writer, he’s likely to be remembered far longer than he ever would have been trying to win the whole Triple Crown. Which I’m sorry to tell you was never going to happen anyway.

On the issue of fate, if they can’t save Barbaro for stud, its not like Izvestia going down. I don’t cry when horses go down, because it is part of the game, but Izvestia was a far greater loss to the breed than Barbaro would be.

On a related note, I’m beginning to suspect the injury occurred during the Gate Bust, that the underlying damage was done there. Did anyone note the attending vet inspect him at all? Bottom line, they were never going to scratch the defending Kentucky Derby victor in that circumstance. It was a fortune reversal and fate, pure and simple.

Hoss,

Anyone that follows horseracing closely knows it’s a game of attrition. There will be breakdowns. They are part of the game. There will be more of them when you breed to a Carson City mare as opposed to a Buckpasser or Tom Fool mare. There will be differing degrees of breakdowns depending upon who trains the horse. There would be fewer breakdowns if drugs are removed and horses are bred for 1.5 and 2 miles.

My belief is that if the Triple Crown is tampered with it should be to make the Belmont 2 miles and run 2 weeks after the Preakness. The Preakness should be a mile and 3/8’s. Increase the purses to 3 million each and see how quickly horses get 20 career starts again. Otherwise, leave the races alone and be prepared to have an incident every now and then.

Yes breakdowns are part of the game, especially with carefully managed horses having infirm broodmare sires. Unfortunately, this one was not unforeseeable. And it may be harsh, but you could even bet upon it.

Rather than get wrapped up in the issue of whether its good etiquette to celebrate a nice cash when another horse is injured in a race, I’d like to briefly mention the efforts of a couple of the horses that ran well.

First off, hats off to Bernardini. You gotta love that Cara Rafaela mare. But he’s not the horse that caught my eye. Like Barbaro’s Derby, this Preakness kinda fell into his hands if you will. He got the garden stalking trip off a hot pace, similar to ill-fated Barbaro’s trip two weeks earlier. Comparison to the previous race on the card is very very revealing. The Pace was torrid. The horse you have to respect off the Preakness is once again SnS. Beaten a half pole, but hopefully they’ll jump as hard on Bernardini as they did Barbaro and we can beat that one upon fatigue as well. What a game animal SnS is and bred to run well again in three weeks as well.

p.s. anyone pick up that stretch movement by the winner?