California Chrome Owner: Belmont Winner Took 'Coward's Way Out'

Breitbart News ^ | June 7, 2014 | Breitbart California

[Mountain Mary]

I don’t understand why his jockey held him back at first, knowing he doesn’t do well in a pack.

[Fungi]

Actually, both sides have a point. He lost, shut up. But still, why not have everyone race everyone on the same card if it is called the triple crown? Yes, I am wrong, just to prevent the comment repercussions. It's just a race, but one that is paramount in terms of bets, emotions, and glamour. OK, have at me.

[dfwgator]

It’s three independent races.....such restrictions were not in place when the other TC winners won. It would dilute it if they changed the rules.

[21twelve]

I don’t follow horse racing.

Any theories on why it has been such a long stretch since the last Triple Crown? (Breeding, training, etc.)

It seemed that in the 70’s there was a new triple crown winner every few years. And now it has been 38 or something. I’m guessing they can’t have anything like “parity” in horse racing like they do in other sports to make the matches more close (and entertaining).

The one thing I thought of is that the owners are training the horses for certain specific races in order to win those races. Rather than taking the effort to breed and train an overall great horse.

[GeronL]

These are 3 individual events, they are welcomed to change that if they want.

[Fungi]

I said I was wrong, you confirmed it.

[eddie willers]

I’m too young to have seen Citation, but I was 21 when Secretariat made his jaw dropping win at the Belmont.

We all expected him to win, but my goodness......nothing like that.

In no event in sports have I ever seen anything like it. If someone wants a make a poster called “Total Domination”, I can’t think of anything that can compare.

[This Just In]

“The guy is getting beat up for speaking his mind while frustrated after losing.”

Sterling didn’t “speak his mind” after losing. He said something in private concerning a particular group of people. He was banned from the NBA and must now sell his team. He’s not just getting “beat up”.

Coburn, on the other hand, blew a gasket simply because his horse lost a race. Furthermore, he isn’t “getting beat up” by the media, he hasn’t been banned from horse racing, and the last time I checked he was still the owner of California Chrome. The guy behaved in an undignified manner. He tarnished the whole “country hick makes it in the big leagues” persona. Frankly, he may have given any critics a good reason to shake their heads.

[Nepeta]

Any theories on why it has been such a long stretch since the last Triple Crown? (Breeding, training, etc.)

The biggest change has been the training. Horses are not trained much anymore; fearful of injuring them, they are barely exercised compared to what was done just 40 years ago.

Why the change?

1)An influx of Quarter Horse trainers. QH racing is based on a brief burst of speed, and there is no need to develop a horse as was once done when good horses ran roughly every two weeks from March to October. Some of these guys were highly successful, and acquired clients with deep pockets who could buy dozens of young horses every year. Everybody copied these trainers, with predictable results.

2) Raceday "medication". Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan all forbid raceday medication. Hong Kong has the most stringent drug rules--and the cleanest racing in the world. North American racing's drug rules are laughed at in these places, and our "champions" are viewed with caution when it comes to breeding. Medication rules changed about the same time horses stopped running often because some of those medications require a lot of recovery time--the horses aren't wiped out by the RACE, but by the effects of the medication, especially Lasix.

3) I do not believe that breeding is a factor. Many of the best stallions in the US spend half a year in Australia and sire foals there. Comparisons of their progeny to other Australian horses DOES NOT indicate frailty of American-based bloodlines; one study indicated that they were in fact SOUNDER. A top horse in Australia can run 3 or 4 times a MONTH, and run well in all of those races, much the way the best horses here used to do as recently as the 1960s.

I believe California Chrome was compromised by his training routine. Yes, he galloped 1 1/2 - 2 miles daily, but he had only one fast work between the Preakness and Belmont. All of these slow gallops served to dull his speed--he ran very much the way he had been trained!

The early pace was SLOW. With the first half mile in :48, the horses in front were having an easy time of it, and when that happens, they're harder to catch. California Chrome should have started moving then, and not waited. Contrary to common belief, there are few deep closers winning the Belmont Stakes; most winners are on the lead or very close a half mile from the finish.

[This Just In]

I haven’t followed horse racing in years. I’ve never visited a derby. I don’t know why it’s been so long since a horse has won the Triple Crown. It is interesting.

[This Just In]

I appreciate this comment.

[Yaelle]

What a horrible classless chump.

It is extremely difficult to win a triple crown. Horses don’t get a special group of peer to compete against in order to increase their chances of winning. Get over yourself.

[Nepeta]

Coburn's post-race comments squandered a lot of good will.

Racing is not a game for the squeamish, the weak, or people who cannot stand to lose (most of the time you WILL lose).

The reality is that in Ye Olde Days, pre-Lasix, good horses sometimes ran and WON races between these three races.

The Belmont is supposed to be a difficult test. Like the Preakness, it is open to anything with TB papers 3 years of age with paid entry fees, which is as it should be.

[21twelve]

Thanks for the information.

Sounds like the “quarter horse” training may have the most to do with it? Having several horses for specific races?

*********

“All of these slow gallops served to dull his speed—he ran very much the way he had been trained!”

I used to coach my kids’ soccer teams. We sucked early on and I didn’t know anything and followed the slow and boring things the league gave us to use (dribble around a cone, lots of drills with one kid doing something and a line of kids behind her. BORING)

Things changed when I found a new system where everything was done at game speed. The Seattle Seahawks incorporate the same speed style in their practices.

They sure are beautiful animals!

[21twelve]

See post 49 for some explanations.

[Yaelle]

That bothered me as well! They didn’t even list the order of the winners or pay any attention to them. It’s a flippin’ horse race: who won, who came in second, etc? And we want to congratulate the winner! All eyes were on the 4th horse and his owners the entire time.

The press hyped up the potential triple crown farrrrr too much. In the horse racing community, CC was not the favorite, though of course he was by the general public. I put a little bet on Chrome to win too, just because it is cool to have a Triple Crown winner, but if didn’t think it was that likely. ITS HARD TO DO.

[Nepeta]

What a horrible classless chump.

It was not pretty watching him unravel.

Contrary to the media blather about east coast resentment of the horse, all the living connections of Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed that I saw interviewed or read about wished California Chrome well, and WANTED him to win. The Thoroughbred press covered him--and his connections--favorably.

If you don't like the way a race is set up, no one compels you to run your horse. There are other tracks and other races.

[Nepeta]

Things changed when I found a new system where everything was done at game speed. The Seattle Seahawks incorporate the same speed style in their practices.

The same kind of thing applies to horses.

There is plenty of evidence to back this up. Gradually increasing demands upon the horse over time is key, on many levels--building the endurance and strengthening the bones.

Few people do this because of the culture of racing in this country. Trainers don't want owners telling them what to do, and owners with deep pockets rarely have expertise in equine physiology. Highly successful trainers often are the ones with the skills to handle their owners, as opposed to highly skilled training.

Training is different overseas.

[jocon307]

What an idiot, his horse didn’t even run second.

Another one defeated by the Belmont, hey loser - you couldn’t make it in New York, so shutupalready!

[jocon307]

It was a dead heat for 4th, they showed 2 winning quinella payouts (whatever they call it, a bet on the first 4 horses to win).

We do a little bet thing, hubby and me and a friend of ours. My pick was the only horse to finish in the money today, he ran third.