<p>I watch the Kentucky Derby every year with my D2; I think we’re on 10 years now (she’s 17). I’m usually not much for horse racing, but the Derby is one of the great spectacles in all of U.S. sports, and the horses are just truly magnificent athletes in tip-top form after training for this race. That come-from-behind stretch run by the winning horse in this year’s Derby was a phenomenal athletic feat. You could see that the horse sensed the competition and wanted it as badly as his jockey, his trainer, and his owner did. Well done!</p>
<p>Derby Day is also an excuse to pick up some good Kentucky bourbon and indulge myself that once-a-year mint julep, a little ritual that tells me Spring has truly arrived.</p>
<p>Agree about Saratoga. It’s the only track that can compete with Keeneland, IMO.</p>
<p>I haven’t been to Saratoga yet, but Arlington International Racecourse is beautiful, too. Different kind of beautiful than Keeneland. Keeneland has the perfect backdrop and is close to the airport.</p>
<pre><code>Not Derby news, but I hear Zenyatta is in-foal to Tapit for 2013. Have any of you watched the video of her 2012 foal?
</code></pre>
<p>If you love racing, consider getting involved in the movement to make it safer in the U.S. An average of 24 horses die on the tracks in the U.S. every week. That is about twice the rate as in countries like the UK and New Zealand. We can do better but people have to demand it. Most of the deaths are in low purse races and involve horses that are certainly taken care of like the horses you see in the Triple Crown.</p>
<p>The NYT ran an article titled "Big Purses, Sore Horses, and Death a week before the derby–
<a href=“Big Purses, Sore Horses and Death - The New York Times”>Big Purses, Sore Horses and Death - The New York Times;
<p>cartera45, How might one get involved?</p>
<p>Probably the best thing we could do would be to have federal uniform standards. Other countries have this. Senator Udall from New Mexico, the state with the most breakdowns, has sponsored such a bill. I would start by expressing support for that bill and encouraging your electeds to support it. There is a task force that folks in New York should pay attention to. Aqueduct had 18 horse deaths from December to March, including 9 in 17 days. </p>
<p>For those who can’t find a group that is supporting horse/jockey safety, then donate to a thoroughbred rescue operation. What happens to these horses when they no longer make money is just as sad as what happens on the track. They can be rehabbed into really nice pleasure horses but there are not enough operations to take all the horses. Many go to slaughter or just starve in paddocks.</p>
<p>cartera45 ~ There is a move now in the hunter/jumper show world to create classes at shows and in some cases an entire show just for registered tbreds. That may help to encourage more people to look to pick up horses that trainers are selling very inexpensively when they don’t make it on the track. Tbreds used to be the horse of choice for hunters/jumpers until the warmbloods started taking over. </p>
<p>My daughter’s horse was an OTTB (off the track thoroughbred). He raced until he bowed his tendon. Fortunately, someone bought him who rehabbed his injury properly and gave him the time off to heal. He never had a problem with that leg again. She had several years of showing him and then he retired right here on our farm. We just lost him in December at the ripe old age of 27.</p>
<p>My daughter showed hunter too. We could only afford an OTTB - technically not off the track because she was injured before she actually raced but she was bred to race. She always competed against the 5-6 figure warmbloods though and it was an uphill battle. This was several years ago when the TBs were really out of style. I have noticed the TB classes in the local shows and I’m hoping for a comeback. I’m in Maryland so we are swimming in OTTB’s.</p>
<p>Yep - we are in northern NJ, so there are plenty of OTTBs around here as well. I know one eventing trainer that only buys OTTBs at a low price, trains them for her discipline and turns around and resells them. They can be a great bargain!</p>
<p>I have long been lamenting the warmblood trend in the show ring. It seems to have gone like western pleasure - “who can go the slowest?”. I’m tired of watching hunter rounds where the horses creep around the course. That is not what the original intent was. Remember outside courses? They were so much fun! My D also competed against the WBs and we had to be happy when he put in a nice, quiet consistent round. He jumped in good form, but he had been a jumper before we got him so had a bit of a motor to the fences. But she did have some success in both hunter and eq. with him.</p>
<p>Another thing that would help the racing TBs is if they didn’t race them as 2 year olds. They need that time to let their bodies and legs develop. But I’m sure that will never happen as that would be too costly to the owners to have those horses just hanging out for another year.</p>
<p>One of the reasons I rooted for Bodemeister was because he had not been raced as a 2 year old and I would have loved for that to have produced a winner. </p>
<p>They are all being raced before physical maturity. Their knees are not close to being ready for racing at 2 and the hocks are not ready at 3. No surprise that raced TBs have all kinds of problems the rest of their lives. They really shouldn’t be raced until their growth plates fuse and that wouldn’t be until they are 6, sometimes 7 years old. That’s not going to happen. They shouldn’t be jumping before that either. They shouldn’t have any weight on their backs as 3 year olds but should just do ground work.</p>
<p>One of the greatest race horses ever, Man O War, did not race in the Kentucky Derby, as his owner thought it was too early in the season to ask a horse to run 1.25 miles. Many people do not realize, however, he easily won both the Preakness & Belmont and most likely would have been a Triple Crown winner. </p>
<p>He did race as a 2yo in only 5-6 furlong races (0.75 or less).</p>