Two hours before the race started, I had the feeling that Mine That Bird would not win the Belmont today. What raised my doubt? The camera in the race holding barn showed Mine That Bird weaving at his stall door; he didn't do that at either the Derby or the Preakness. Seeing him do his mindless weaving, all I could think of was that he was leaving his race in the barn - somehow, the stress levels of his team and/or the crowd got to him, and he was hit with a case of nerves. Poor boy. I saw him fight Calvin at the 5/8ths pole, and hoped he could win after fighting with his jock... Calvin had to let him go then, or he wouldn't run on.... and Summer Bird, from the same father, was getting a Borel-type ride along the rail from Kent Desormeaux. It takes a very special horse to be able to win the Triple Crown, and Mine That Bird just didn't have it this year.
I did laugh out loud at a comment one of the trainers made... "Horses aren't bred for running a mile and a half, and all the Triple Crown races should have their distances shortened." While what he said is true of horses in the United States today, it is not true in other countries - and he is ignoring the history of blooded horse racing itself. In the past, horses were not raced until they were at least 4 years old, and some didn't start racing until later in their lives. Horses ran heats of a race - anywhere from 2 to 5 miles in each heat, and the top qualifiers then raced each other, again, the same day.... Thoroughbred race horses here in the US are bred to run before they are mature, to run at greater speeds than their young bodies can handle, and to run very short distances compared to their forebears. Very few horses ever race a mile and a half in their life-time in the US - and it's the longest distance of any Stakes race of note here. The Epsom Derby in England is run at a mile and a half; the other two legs of their Triple Crown are longer. When our founding fathers decided to run on dirt instead of turf, to run counter-clockwise on the track, and to run shorter distances, they did so to essentially thumb their noses at the British. In doing so, they have knocked the legs out from under the thoroughbred as a whole.
For the first time, this year, in 2009, the Triple Crown races were run without medications - all were considered banned, including Lasix. Considering that for the past 50 to 60 years, nearly every race horse in America has used Lasix "to improve its breathing" - it's truly amazing that Mine That Bird was able to win the Derby, take second in the Preakness, and show in the Belmont. My hat is off to him and his entire team.
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Yours is the only comment on the web that I could find that mentioned Mine That Bird's weaving in his stall right before the race. The camera angle showed nobody there to keep him calm.
That caught my eye too. Combined with his jock's lack of experience on the track - Borel didn't ride one mount that whole week, never won a race at Belmont. He chose to spend the week sight-seeing and doing media interviews. The horse didn't have the experience on board to time his move on a tricky, decieving sized course when he loaded into the gate with a case of pre-race jitters. I think he did really well considering.
Kent Desormeaux, the winning jockey, had three other wins that day and did his homework on how the track was behaving.
When it gets away from being about the horse - when it's about the media, human pride, overconfidence without taking care of the basics the horse needs - the horses don't seem to do as well.
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