not necessarily--they didn\'t race him on lasix as a 2 yo, and retied him sound instead of trying to squeak another win out of him...maybe the conversation/scenario with shug went something like this:
orb didn\'t bleed through his lasix until after the ky derby--maybe the first time was in the preakness
after the belmont, janey wants to retire orb due to bleeding through his lasix. but shug hears about fair hill (maybe from orb\'s exercise rider, she lives near there i think), and says, \"let\'s give him time and treatment to heal and strengthen his lungs at fairhill, and then bring him back strong in the fall.\" the fairhill/train away from the track, was something shug had never done before. and when point of entry needed to heal, they didn\'t send him to fairhill, but to ocala.
and this might explain why they skipped the jim dandy. shug had said at the time, \"i don\'t want to move two steps forward (i.e. the treatment at fairhill) and then a step back (i.e. one race too many)\" the goal at this point was still the BCC--maybe shug assumed that orb could go 3 races in row before he\'d bleed again (if my ky derby theory is right).
orb looked strong in the travers, and for a minute there he looked like the winner, till he faded in the stretch, and was passed by a horse he\'d just passed. he could have started to bleed again at that point. they sent him immediately back to fairhill.
they bring him back for the jcgc, he was in the mix for almost 6f, and then stopped running and finished way last. maybe that\'s where he started bleeding again. he was clearly sound, he fired off a 59 and change breeze 2 weeks later.
immediately after the jcgc, janey says that orb is to be retired, then shug says he\'ll run in the cigar mile, which was weird to begin with because orb doesn\'t seem to be fast enough to win against quality milers--while the 9f clark was the next day and seemed right up orb\'s alley.
maybe shug\'s logic was, \"if we shorten the distance, he won\'t start bleeding till he\'s almost home.\"
then out of the blue orb\'s retired, right after firing off a bullet at belmont, and by the look of things, shug wasn\'t told beforehand.
my guess, orb bled after the work, and janey said, \"that\'s enough.\" if i\'m right, janey did right by orb and didn\'t compromise his principles.
if orb was bleeding badly in most or all of his races this year, then every one of his effort\'s except for the jcgc was the best of any 3 yo by far, and ranks up there with best by any n. american hose this year--think about his belmont, closing all that ground wide, only to fade in the 12 f and still hang of for 3rd--while bleedng badly (i.e. essentially being unable to breathe)--maybe that\'s why shug just could let him go.
this might also explain why claiborn put him in secretariat\'s stall (and bold ruler\'s, and easy goer\'s, and unbridled\'s...). but if he is a bad bleeder, he shouldn\'t be bred...but horses with no breeding value, have no value period...even for rich people...the sad vicious circle of horse racing/breeding. if it\'s true, the ky horse park, would be a better place for him, then the breeding shed.
just as an fyi--i\'ve seen all over the horse-racing internet sphere this whack notion that hyperaric therapy helps treat/cure bleeding--there is no way for it to do this, it has no effect on the lungs. it has a temporary effect on oxygen absorption by the internal organs. take a deep breath. now exhale. you\'ve just had the same exact effect on your lungs as orb did in the chamber (not taking into account that you probably were breathing in pollutants and carcinogens, along with your nitrogen-oxygen-c02 cocktail known as air, while he ws breathing in pure oxygen).
i don\'t remember who, but there was a trainer in the days before lasix that believed if you tied a wire around a horse\'s tail he wouldn\'t bleed. the hyperbaric chamber theory is just as efficacious.
it\'s when i see crack-pot stuff like this that i think that horse vets and dopers are quacks, who just sometimes stumble onto something that works. the wire-around-the-tail was actually probably better for the horse in the long run, since excessive use of the chamber will weaken the lungs and make racing at sea level for the chamber horse, as difficult as racing at altitude for the non-chamber horse (hyperbaric treatment is like going below sea level--high altitude=low oxygen, sea level=normal oxygen, hyperbaric=more oxygen. it has the inverse athletic effect as training at altitude, if done more than just for a few days before a race).
