no triple crown...

[lagilman]

Ah, what a heartbreaking race... watching the Preakness reminded me of all the reasons why horse racing is excitement marching lockstep with fear (for those of you who didn't watch, Derby Winner Barbaro was pulled up with a leg injury mere strides into the race. Leg injuries to a horse are dire, dreadful things and the entire crowd uttered a dismayed gasp as-one when it happened).


I had picked Barbaro to place, with Sweetnorthernsaint to win and Brother Derek to show, thinking that Bernardini looked strong but I didn't know anything about him.

End result: Barbaro a scratch, Bernardini winning, Sweetnorthernsaint placing, and Brother Derek coming in fourth. My position as a decent but not excellent odds-maker holds, and we will always wonder what might have happened if Barbero hadn't had the false break and then the injury...

If you have prayers to spare for a horse, Barbaro could use them. There's enough money (as well as love) involved that they'll do everything possible to make sure he heals well (enough to stand to stud, hopefully) but horses are fragile creatures...

Comments

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

I cried when that happened - it made me so glad that nothing like that ever happened when I was still actively riding horses. (For pleasure, not competition.)

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was heartbreaking. I thought when he broke out of the gate early that it was a bad omen. I do hope they will be able to save him.

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

I'll be very surprised if they don't have to put him down; it looked to me like the leg was broken down by the fetlock, and the problem is that even if you can repair the break, keeping a fit three-year-old TB off a hind leg long enough to let such an injury heal is nearly impossible.

God, I hope I'm wrong.

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

Stunt prizes like the Triple Crown should be banned by shifting the race timings. The greed of trainers/owners wanting to aggrandise themselves as winners of this artificially constructed event has caused the deaths/maiming/ruination of too many innocent animals. I'm not anti-racing, as such, but I lose the plot completely when I hear of things like this. It's wicked, wicked, wicked. I hope the people responsible for this animal's sufferings themselves suffer the torments of the damned.

Yes. I'm pissed.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

I do, too. It is the horse that's the problem--next to impossible to immobilize him if he doesn't wanna. Wasn't it Ruffian who essentially killed herself after her break by refusing to keep still? The ones that survive are the ones who can handle the months of being hung in a sling (like the Arabian *Raffles who recovered and went on to years of showing and siring offspring--and this was back in the Thirties).

It's terribly sad and troubling.

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

I just read a report that said he had a break both above and below the fetlock. That horse was ... I want to say "wired" but I don't want to give the impression that I'm saying I think he was drugged, because I DON'T. He was just unbelievably hot before the race, broke from the gate before the start--there's no way they can keep him quiet long enough to heal. And it's a hind leg, too, which makes it even worse. I thought Raffles' injury was a foreleg, wasn't it?

And yes, that was Ruffian. I was watching that race. I said then I didn't want to watch horse racing any more. I wish I'd kept to that.

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's the timing of the race nearly as much as it is the fact that they're asking babies to do this. Michael Matz was considered crazy because he gave Barbaro five weeks off before the Derby. No other horse in the race had that much time off. But these are all three-year-old races. They should be five or six at least before they do this stuff.

[lagilman]

yeah, I was watching him before the race and thought he was totally up for this race -- even after he stepped wrong, he wanted to go on and chase (and catch!) the pack. He did NOT want to pull up.

According to the surgeon in charge, best case scenario will be to save him for breeding. *sigh*

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

Good point. But the racing game is all about money, and who cares if the animals die? They're insured.

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

I was horrified when I saw a still shot of Barbara's leg kinda flying out to the right. Poor baby. ;-(