This horse was a solid and consistent a 25K performer. It was recently claimed for 25K, won for 35K, and then came back with another two good efforts in starter handicap races.

The horse was dropped in for 7.5K!

I can't imagine a louder shout that the horse had a major problem. It was the classic suspicious dropdown.

I specifically stayed out of the race because I couldn't take even money on a suspect horse. IMO, the horse almost certainly had to have problems and be vulnerable to throwing in a total bust of a race.

In addition, the horse was initially handled like it had a bit of potential until it was laid off for close to a year. That's another sign there were problems (at least previously).

Horses like this often hold together for awhile and win a few more races. They are sometimes turned around by "some trainers" etc.... but it was like playing Russian Roulette to claim it.

I'm not holding anyone in particular responsible, but perhaps the standards need to be raised before horses are allowed to go to the track.

I am not a vet and am mostly talking from intuition in this case (out of my ass if you will), but whatever the risk of breaking down is whenever a very suspicious dropdown like this runs, IMO it almost has to be higher than for younger horses that have been racing and working regularly throughout their career and that have given no signs of problems.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2007 04:04PM by fkach.