Eight Belles' Owner On Triple Crown & Oversight

[Patuxet]

Rick Porter wants Congress to intervene by threatening to take away the industry’s simulcasting privileges if it does not form a national governing body.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/sport ... ref=sports

[ratherrapid]

hopefully everyone understands where this point of view comes from: rich boys club taking over the sport, eliminate race tracks, race days, NASCAR the sport/a few boutique meets where only a few have the cash to race--aided and abetted at every opportunity by Paulick report.

[Joltman]

Government 'oversight' will hang yet one more albatross on the neck of the industry. If it is an 'industry' there needs to be a new model for the industrial machinery.


jm

[TJ]

Reading this from the owner of Eight Belles:

“I’ll never forget it; millions of people all over the world will never forget it,” Porter said. “That was the most heart-wrenching thing I’ve ever been through. The effort she put out to prove that she belonged, then that long walk back to the barn, along the racetrack. I will never forget that.”

I was in the press box that afternoon. After Eight Belles collapsed, I decided then and there that I was finished with thoroughbred racing. It’s one thing to watch boxing and professional football, where athletes make conscious decisions to participate in brutal sport. It’s another thing to watch a blood sport in which wonderful animals are volunteered, indeed bred, to participate in a sport that, any way you look at it, grinds them up."

Doesn't he seem so noble wanting to leave the business after his horse lost her life in the Kentucky Derby. He wants to reform and blame the industry for something that happened to his horse because of a conscience decision he and his trainer made to run his young 3YO filly in the Kentucky Derby. I come from the old school....very seldom would you run a young immature filly against the colts, it just didn't make sense. A good filly will try her heart out for you....if she is the best of her age and generation why have her move out of that comfort zone and run against faster, tougher competition.....was that fateful decision simply an ego booster for her human connections? The harder you have to run, the closer to your maximum threshold you will reach.....a dangerous place to put your young filly especially being by Unbridled's Song. A filly like Eight Belles ran her heart out to do what Porter and Jones asked her to. They could have asked her to run against the best filly's of her generation in the Oaks the day before....and in my opinion she might still be here if they took that most sensible option. Then, as she matured and added to her laurel's there would always be time to try the boys. Another no, no from the old school was using a rider that was big and heavy to gallop your horse daily. That adds to the stress on that young fillies joints, bones and ligaments. Might I add, that Porter's experience with Eight Belles seems to have faded. Harve De Grace also owned by Porter (guess he didn't get out of the business after they pushed Eight Belles to her fate), was subjected to the same treatment...running much harder against the boys and toting Jones around the racetrack everyday, creating undue stress and strain on her joints, bones and ligaments and it just so happened she too retired with an ankle injury....but she was the lucky one....it happened in a workout and luckily she didn't snap it off on the track before millions as Eight Belles did. In my opinion, their quest to prove they had two of the greatest filly's ever lived clouded their judgement and cut short the careers of two great race mares. In my humble opinion I find that Porter and Jones are as much to blame for what happened to both these great horses as the uncontrolled racing industry.....which still makes better decisions then those two did with these two horse. TJ

[Sysonby]

Yeah I don't get the logic either. From the article

He hoped that Eight Belles’ death would be a catalyst for reform. It has not been.

So Porter wanted to others to reform himself? He and his trainer did something that he feels needs to be reformed?

It doesn't make sense.

[louis finochio]

HDG is a NFB, with an OCPNDI, EB is a FB with intense inbreeding. If our goverment knew how to read pedigrees, they would be light years ahead of their class.

[ElPrado]

What does the government care about pedigrees? They don't breed remount horses any more and don't have a cavalry. The government could care less about fashion breds or non fashion breds.

[Bast]

What does the government care about pedigrees? They don't breed remount horses any more and don't have a cavalry. The government could care less about fashion breds or non fashion breds.

Hmm, I think they are training again for mule handling. There are still some places best reached riding a horse or mule.

But they aren't using FB mules, I'm certain.

We've been through Eight Belles inbreeding before, and recently, along with her more inbred, still racing half-brother.

I hate acronyms and abbreviations, especially when they are thrown around blithely as if the entire universe uses them daily. I have no idea what Louis is talking about part of the time because of his use of acronyms.

[Sailor Kenshin]

The last thing any industry needs is government oversight.

This is very disquieting.

[ratherrapid]

much less so than what they did to 8Belles.

[Sailor Kenshin]

And government meddling would have prevented this how?

Every time the fed or the state steps in, we are doomed.

[casallc]

"government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" - someone smarter than Rick Porter or Congress.

[DDT]

Louis

HDG (Havre de Grace) does not have an outcross pedigree with no duplication, she is inbred to Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer.

DDT

[Jorge]

Came across this article:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-0 ... s-sagamore