Wall Street Journal article about Jess Jackson

[ellen]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121089232117896885.html?mod=weekend_journal_primary_hs

[Heidilady]

Am I the only one who found it amusing that they saw Native Dancer on both sides and decided that equals fashionable? It's like the ones selling a horse online and going 'ah, here for you a special stallion prospect, a great-grandson of Secretariat'... It takes more than one horse. Not to say Curlin's a nobody but they didn't establish that from anything other than Native Dancer.

[soundfast]

I think Jesse Jackson's desire to improve the breed is admirable but I am not sure it is necessary to buy horses in other countries. The article "Horse Racing body pushes health measures" names Native Dancer as the source of unsoundness that caused the breakdown of Barbaro and Eight Belles. Native Dancer never broke any bones and won every start except the KY Derby in which he was second and then went on to win the Preakness and Belmont,etc. He started 22 times which is a lot more than horses of his caliber would be likely to race now. His sire Polynesian had 58 starts and his dam sire Discovery had 63 starts. They seem to be looking for a scapegoat for their bad breeding practices. I consider Native Dancer a good influence. Without Native Dancer we would not have had Mr. Prospector or Northern Dancer neither of which retired because of bone fractures like Rags To Riches and some others have. Native Dancer had offspring with over 90 starts. Some mares he bred may have been unsound. The sire is only responsible for half of any horses heredity. The BS about him having less than the average number of starts for the period he raced in is just that BS. Nearco had only 16 starts and so did Ribot. Nearco is probably in more pedigrees than Native Dancer.

[helen in FL]

I only knew about Jess Jackson through his lawsuits because he received assistance from a friend of mine in the horse show world who was able to make a fraud sale case to federal. But I have to say, I like where he's going and his willingness to call them like he sees them.