I’ll Have Another Scratched From Belmont, Ending Triple Crown Bid (click here)
By RYAN GOLDBERG June 8, 2012, 11:49 AM
I’ll Have Another, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner who was aiming to become the 12th horse to win the Triple Crown, was scratched Friday from Saturday’s Belmont Stakes because of a leg injury.
The promising 3-year-old colt, who had been a long-shot winner of the Derby and an impressive winner three weeks ago in the Preakness, might have tendinitis in his left front leg, his trainer, Doug O’Neill, said.
O’Neill and the horse’s owner, J. Paul Reddam, scheduled a news conference at Belmont Racetrack for 1 p.m. Friday....
Thoroughbreds have become a commodity and the drug support of the breed has ruined the genetic base. There haven't been race horses with the same stamina or physical endurance as there was years ago. If a thoroughbred is consistently raced enhanced by drugs, it isn't their genetic composition that is destroyed, it is that the top winners no longer have what it takes without medications.
When medications enhance the performance of thoroughbreds, THE PRACTICE of administering the drugs "SELECTS" the genetics differently. The horses are no longer the same horse their ancestors were. It isn't a matter of a stallion being able to bred a broodmare, it is the composition of the genetic material of the foal that is different. The foal will be composed of genetics from inferior performers needing drug enhancement to finish AT THE TOP.
The Triple Crown is about performance on all venues; speed, ambition to run to winner (gaminess) and endurance. The speed and endurance just ain't there the way it used to be. These thoroughbreds are more delicate. A CHAMPION cannot and is not delicate. Valuable and treated as if a porcelain doll, sure. Why not? Being cautious to prevent stupid accidents that can harm a champion is important. But, to invest all it takes to bring a Three Year Old to the Belmont anticipating The Triple Crown isn't about how well the horse was padded in the transport, it is about the genetics.
There was a television series that could no longer be filmed because the horses kept dying. What does anyone think that was about?
Horse trainer 'Drug' O'Neill has plenty of company (click here)
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, The Associated PressUpdated 5:31 AM Friday, June 8, 2012
LOS ANGELES — The affable man with the horse that may become the first Triple Crown winner in more than a generation can't seem to outrun his unflattering nickname: "Drug" O'Neill.
But Doug O'Neill is far from the only trainer in Saturday's Belmont Stakes with a history of improperly medicated horses. The Associated Press reviewed the histories of all 11 trainers with horses in the race and found that 10 had at least one violation of medication regulations set by state racing boards.
O'Neill has been under the most scrutiny because his colt, I'll Have Another, won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes and is the 4-5 favorite to add the Belmont and complete the first Triple Crown in 34 years....
