Bummed Out

I have to admit that the injury and retirement of I'll Have Another has me singing the blues.  I really liked that colt!  And I had hoped the chestnut would be able to emulate Secretariat in 1973 (on this very day) and Affirmed in 1978.  But it was not to be.   With the big guy out of the picture, I'll place my bets today on Street Life, Unstoppable U and Atigun, with Five Sixteen thrown into the mix....
  I was amazed to read a few newspaper stories today that questioned whether I'll Have Another should have been scratched after becoming lame yesterday.  The horse's left fore leg filled with fluids after an easy jog; the attending veterinarian said it was the onset of a bout of tendonitis.  As always, I'm conflicted about horse racing - I love the races, and I love seeing horses that are bred to run compete against each other; I also know that a thoroughbreds body is not completely mature until it reaches 8 years of age.  Racing is, intrinsically, a nasty business.  You break a track thoroughbred when he's a yearling, or a little over 1 year of age; then you start training them to run at high speeds.  Their legs, muscles and ligaments are not mature, and won't be until well after they are retired.  When the Thoroughbred breed was developed in England, the horses were not run until they were 4 or 5 years of age (at the earliest).  They generally raced a 4-mile-long race; the race was run in heats; sometimes they raced 4 miles 4 times in one day...  They were bred and trained for that type of grueling work at that time. Today, the thoroughbred is bred for speed over much shorter distances - especially in the United States.  Horses that don't "make it" running short, fast races, but have endurance, are sometimes sent on for steeple chasing and jump racing.  But this sport is not publicized as much as flat racing, and the winning monies are considerably smaller than on the flat track (here in the States).  Other horses break down and are retired, or break down and are killed because the injuries are too severe to off-set the cost of the veterinarian bills.  Unfortunately, a lot of pedigreed thoroughbreds end up becoming steaks in Europe and Asia, or end up in a doggie bowl.  It's a glamorous life for a talented few...
    I believe, in my heart of hearts, that the owners and trainers of I'll Have Another made the best decision possible in scratching the colt from the Belmont and deciding to retire him.  He'll be able to pass on his abilities to his offspring.  If he  passed a vet check today, and ran the one-and-a-half mile Belmont, he might do irreparable damage to his tendon sheath; he might make a mis-step due to pain, and end up fracturing a leg; he might have ended up being euthanized on the track, in front of an unblinking and unprepared nationwide audience.  Pulling an injured horse out of any race shows a love and caring for that horse.  Running him, just so he could have run in the Belmont, and could say he was a contender in all of the Triple Crown races would have been pure lunacy on the part of any true horse person.