Interesting Take on Why Top Horses Retire After 3yo Season.

[Worksoplad]

An interesting take by Julian Muscat in The London Sunday Times on why owners retire top colts after their three year old season:

"Realism must accompany any argument about equine longevity. Soundness is only one element within an equation that is rarely considered in its entirety when it comes to keeping a horse in training.

As much as we love watching Flat runners compete time and again, the biggest barrier is down to nature. Horses are herd animals with an instinctive desire to breed. It is a mechanism that has ensured the survival of the species in the wild.

When that desire kicks in, usually when a horse reaches four years old, the mind inevitably wanders. And the least appealing prospect for any horse with mares on his mind is to consent to run through the pain barrier. This, in turn, is what distinguishes a great horse from a very good one.

Hence the dilemma for connections of a top-class three-year-old. By embracing another season, they run the risk that their horse’s mind may wander to the extent that he could humiliate himself on the racetrack. "

The full article can be seen at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 803737.ece

[LB]

What the writer doesn't seem to take into account is the fact that these "herd animals with an instinctive desire to breed"--by the way doesn't every animal have an instinctive desire to breed?--will, if left to their own devices, begin reproducing at the age of 2 and sometimes earlier.

No one has has ever handled horses would agree that their desire to breed kicks in at four years of age.

Also...I guess I'm feeling curmudgeonly this morning...I don't agree that the horses who race are forced to "run through the pain barrier".

[Toccet02]

I have heard on a wild horse documentary that around 4 years old is usually the EARLIEST a bachelor horse will try to fight stallions and get his own band of mares. Maybe it's not just the desire to breed, but the reaching of mental maturity--growing into a breeding stallion?

[wangkw]

If horses were to fight for mares in the barn next to their, then one day these horses will take the law into their own hands.

[tbrace]

Anyone who has handled a two year old colt knows that he ALREADY has girls on the mind.

[winds]

It's economics, that's all. It has nothing to do with the colt wanting to breed. That article is wrong.

winds

[Mahubah]

If the older horses were at such a disadvantage due to their mental wanderings, they wouldn't be conceding weight to the younger set in open races, which they do around the world. There's a reason why it takes a better than average colt or filly at a given class level to step up and whip its elders even with the concession -- the older horses are usually more dominant even if they aren't any faster.

[Tappiano]

It's economics, that's all. It has nothing to do with the colt wanting to breed. That article is wrong.

winds

Right you are! It started in the early 80's in Europe and then when Conquistador Cielo won the Belmont it streaked against the jet stream and hit the masses in Lexington who are now starting to lose that fever just a bit.

[Toccet02]

If the older horses were at such a disadvantage due to their mental wanderings, they wouldn't be conceding weight to the younger set in open races, which they do around the world. There's a reason why it takes a better than average colt or filly at a given class level to step up and whip its elders even with the concession -- the older horses are usually more dominant even if they aren't any faster.

True, that . . .do you think the older horses are chaneling their sexually maturing thoughts into competition instead?

[Intrinsic Worth]

Sometimes it's beaten out of them. I know a trainer who takes a strap to colts that act studdish at the track.

[Nessa]

If the older horses were at such a disadvantage due to their mental wanderings, they wouldn't be conceding weight to the younger set in open races, which they do around the world. There's a reason why it takes a better than average colt or filly at a given class level to step up and whip its elders even with the concession -- the older horses are usually more dominant even if they aren't any faster.

True, that . . .do you think the older horses are chaneling their sexually maturing thoughts into competition instead?

They have to work off the excess energy and frustration in some way, might as well runn your competition into the ground.

[dray33]

Herd animals also have the desire to run.

[reenci]

so.......yesteryears horses that ran twice as many races didnt want to breed ?.....hog wash.

[DuncanPatch]

Re: Muscat's article. A grand fantasy of anthropomorphizing. The main reason for early retirement is the entirely human desire to make money from stud fees. Ironically, it is the over-production of under-quality horses, bred for short careers in short races on dirt tracks, that will eventually be the death of the sport.

Not long ago Aidan O'Brian said he thought racehorses should race. What a concept. I'd like to see more such radical thinking in America.

[Mahubah]

Anthropomorphizing? If humans lost all focus on anything but breeding after reaching sexual maturity, none of us would be good for a blasted thing after age 15. (Some people aren't anyway, but that's another story.)