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Horses are in the gate now.... there goes Ichabad. Race is about to start... and they're off!
And two minutes later they're done. Da'Tara, odds of 38-1, won it by, oh god, lengths and lengths! Big Brown, the favorite at 4-1, came in dead last.
"I had no horse." - Kent Desormo, the jockey.
Brown broke well, although the jockey said there was a stumble. He was clearly anxious during the run, tossing his head, looking unhappy - definitly in distress. I would say in pain; there was something funny about his pace. Then, after barely any time, his jockey felt something very wrong, that the horse was not himself, and pulled him out of the pack. Literally out of the pack. He's way off to the right, way off the rail, with his jockey making sure he's alright. It was the right choice, of course - good for the jockey, even with all the pressure of winning the Triple Crown.
Now, Brown may have been kicked - they're looking for internal bleeding now. He may have respiratory bleeding, a common TB issue.
Or it may be that foot.
See, I don't think he should have been running. A quarter crack, which he ran on, is by no means a fatal injury - in fact, it's not even a debilitating one. It heals with little to no effort on the owner's part, and they can even be worked during that. Not a ton, but it's allowed. Moving on the hoof will not cripple them.
But it hurts like a bitch, if you'll pardon my language. It can make a horse not want to run, even if they're not lame. Would you want to run on a broken toe? A broken toe in a human isn't going to cripple you, but your performance will drop.
He shouldn't have been run. Was it minor? Yes. Have other horses run on injuries like it? Yes. Is that a good thing?
No. That just shows up the issues in horse racing. Brushing off minor injuries like that is a big problem. No, they aren't debilitating, but they're painful, and that, as any horse person knows, harms performance. I took my pony off showing for half a season because he was lame. That's the right thing to do. No, Brown's not lame or otherwise hurt, now that they're looking at him in the barn, but that doesn't mean he wasn't in pain. If I was him, I wouldn't be in the mood to run! Add to that that he'd been on steroids - he was given an injection on April 15th, and the commentators say that it hadn't worn off for the first two races. And it has now.
So, to conclude, Big Brown is emblematic of what's wrong in the racing industry: taking fame and glory, and money, over the health of the horse.
In six words: He shouldn't have run the race. Discuss.
And two minutes later they're done. Da'Tara, odds of 38-1, won it by, oh god, lengths and lengths! Big Brown, the favorite at 4-1, came in dead last.
"I had no horse." - Kent Desormo, the jockey.
Brown broke well, although the jockey said there was a stumble. He was clearly anxious during the run, tossing his head, looking unhappy - definitly in distress. I would say in pain; there was something funny about his pace. Then, after barely any time, his jockey felt something very wrong, that the horse was not himself, and pulled him out of the pack. Literally out of the pack. He's way off to the right, way off the rail, with his jockey making sure he's alright. It was the right choice, of course - good for the jockey, even with all the pressure of winning the Triple Crown.
Now, Brown may have been kicked - they're looking for internal bleeding now. He may have respiratory bleeding, a common TB issue.
Or it may be that foot.
See, I don't think he should have been running. A quarter crack, which he ran on, is by no means a fatal injury - in fact, it's not even a debilitating one. It heals with little to no effort on the owner's part, and they can even be worked during that. Not a ton, but it's allowed. Moving on the hoof will not cripple them.
But it hurts like a bitch, if you'll pardon my language. It can make a horse not want to run, even if they're not lame. Would you want to run on a broken toe? A broken toe in a human isn't going to cripple you, but your performance will drop.
He shouldn't have been run. Was it minor? Yes. Have other horses run on injuries like it? Yes. Is that a good thing?
No. That just shows up the issues in horse racing. Brushing off minor injuries like that is a big problem. No, they aren't debilitating, but they're painful, and that, as any horse person knows, harms performance. I took my pony off showing for half a season because he was lame. That's the right thing to do. No, Brown's not lame or otherwise hurt, now that they're looking at him in the barn, but that doesn't mean he wasn't in pain. If I was him, I wouldn't be in the mood to run! Add to that that he'd been on steroids - he was given an injection on April 15th, and the commentators say that it hadn't worn off for the first two races. And it has now.
So, to conclude, Big Brown is emblematic of what's wrong in the racing industry: taking fame and glory, and money, over the health of the horse.
In six words: He shouldn't have run the race. Discuss.