Rosewood:
I would suggest to Mr Squires, who sold the best horse he ever bred, that
he and his fellow breeders are a large part of the problem.
As to the hooves (isn\'t that what they call feet in the horse business, Mr
Squires?), I think Dutrow and his farrier should be getting some credit right
now for holding this colt\'s hooves together. Whenever Dutrow says (or someone
mentions) that part of his success is due to enjoying service of a blacksmith
who works only for him and his brother Tony, I think lots of people roll their
eyes, but I think that many who are closer to the backstretch than I am will
agree that it is a tremendous advantage.
Rick Dutrow may be a flawed human being who has shown no particular respect for
the rules of racing in the past, but it is hard to find fault with anything he
has done with this particular specimen.
Since I am here, some post mortemization:
TV Coverage: Very interesting that NBC took what seemed to be like 45 minutes
of its TV coverage to address Racing\'s pressing issues, many of which were in
existence well before Eight Belles\' horrific breakdown at Churchill. Medication,
synthetic surfaces,are we breeding the wrong kind of racehorse, etc, were all
discussed.The conclusion was the only logical one, one which has been stated
here many times--Racing needs a central governing body, with a national racing
czar, to solve its problems.
As to Alex Waldorp of NTRA, \"W\" basically said that he is awaiting orders from
the Industry, which is not encouraging. I know, W, that this is not your
mandate, but why aren\'t you and your organization trying to get racing to the
point where all efforts are unified and a National body empowered?
The answer to this question, of course, is that the first conclusion of such
body would be, that in order to improve Racing and to improve the breed, there
would have to be \"LESS\": Less racetracks, less races being run, less horses
being bred, less unraced and ungraded stallions, all of which would result in
less money being made by a good deal of those actively involved in the business
of Racing, and will probably result in many who are scratching out a living in
Racing no longer being able to.
I do not believe NTRA, based on its constituency, is well suited to deliver the
\"LESS\" message. But LESS solves 2 major issues, which are actually one related
issue--the weakening of the breed and the diminishing quality of Racing in the
US.
The coverage of Dutrow was about what was to be expected. His answer to the
question of whether he would continue to succeed without steroids--that his
stable would continue to prosper without them--is probably accurate in that
steroids might not be the only arrow in his quiver.
Coverage of the race itself-- Since I didn\'t bet, I was not that unhappy with
the camera switches to the Snoopy I (blimp) shots. After 3/4s of a mile or so
you clearly saw Kent D looking under his arms and back through his legs and the
burst of acceleration was quite impressive, though I will continue to temper
my impression of it based on the fact that there were only 2 Graded stakes
winners in this field in addition to 4 colts and 1 gelding who were eligible to
run in a non winners of 2 lifetime race at any racetrack in the United States.
Regardless (or irregardless) a very impressive specimen who will be a deserving
odds on favotite to win the first Triple Crown in 30 years.
BB will be the seventh runner in the last 12 years to have a chance to win the
TC. That seems like too big a number considering that many are calling for the
traditional Triple Crown to be overhauled.
