New York thunder

[Art K Stables]

RIP

[Autumn Blackmill]

Damnit, I really liked this one too. It has not been a good time to be a sprinter at Saratoga. My heart goes out to the connections and fellow fans, it's been a rough one.

*edit
Having seen the race there was no need to push him that hard. He was already an easy winner, what the hell.

[Anthony Zappulla]

Crazy

[LA Pepper]

I'm afraid to watch the races anymore

[Art K Stables]

Yeah it makes you watch the next race hoping they get through safely , echo Zulu was well in front also but the jockey was still pushing her pretty hard because you just don’t take those chances and I doubt any discipline of the jockey will come of it and therefore the New York thunder jockey can’t really be faulted.. the horse takes a step and his front left foreleg was parallel to the ground sadly it was obviously catastrophic.. but they move on because the jockey was ok and there’s not much else can be done

[Cleo Patra]

*edit
Having seen the race there was no need to push him that hard. He was already an easy winner, what the hell.

When dad was training me as a jockey, one of the first things he said to me was that if he ever caught me “winning excessively” that he’d drag me off the horse and flog me with my own whip. Every tenth of a second faster applies exponentially higher forces on the horse. It’s our job to save as much of the horse as possible for his next run, and his long term future. Sure, I’ve won by some pretty big margins but it’s always been well in hand.

RIP New York Thunder. May American racing learn from you and Mel.

[Autumn Blackmill]

*edit
Having seen the race there was no need to push him that hard. He was already an easy winner, what the hell.

When dad was training me as a jockey, one of the first things he said to me was that if he ever caught me “winning excessively” that he’d drag me off the horse and flog me with my own whip. Every tenth of a second faster applies exponentially higher forces on the horse. It’s our job to save as much of the horse as possible for his next run, and his long term future. Sure, I’ve won by some pretty big margins but it’s always been well in hand.

RIP New York Thunder. May American racing learn from you and Mel.

I totally agree with that, getting the horse home safe and sound is the number 1 priority. Unfortunately I think digging down to get to the bottom of a horse, especially on such a day as today, is too common. He was 4 or 5 in front coming down the stretch when the whip was brought out for the first time. He could have wrapped up on him and still won easily. Instead I think there was some incentive to show off this horse, who was already known to have tremendous speed. It's a shame. I'm sure the muddy/sealed track didn't help matters, all the more to be protective over the horse imo.

[Anthony Zappulla]

Could have been to see if the horse like to go long, cause I think he just could have he was that good

Just unfortunate

[Anthony Zappulla]

He was lightly raced BTW

[David Faulkner]

It is unfortunately the evil that came to this colt, I only hope that if there was Great Negligence in its result, Justice will be present to avoid these results again

[LA Pepper]

I really dont know any of the circumstances here, but there is such a critter as a loafer - one that decides the race is over once in front or waits for some company to catch up. The jockey catches hell also when they relax and a come from behinder catches up at the last second. But I dont know if this was the case.
Also - I'm a bit offended by the comment that AMERICAN racing needs to learn something. I really think its the entire racing community that should take notice. I also unfortuneately believe that absolutely nothing will prevent ALL of these catastrophies. It is a part of the 'sport' if we ask horses to extend themselves to the point of exhaustion. It is definitely making me examine my love of the sport, as I love the horses and the competition.

[Royal Celestine]

The horse was a freak. He was too fast for his body though. Also super unsound. And there’s been things said about his trainer. This is what happens when u continue to breed glass to glass. Very unfortunate.

[Cleo Patra]

I really dont know any of the circumstances here, but there is such a critter as a loafer - one that decides the race is over once in front or waits for some company to catch up. The jockey catches hell also when they relax and a come from behinder catches up at the last second. But I dont know if this was the case.
Also - I'm a bit offended by the comment that AMERICAN racing needs to learn something. I really think its the entire racing community that should take notice. I also unfortuneately believe that absolutely nothing will prevent ALL of these catastrophies. It is a part of the 'sport' if we ask horses to extend themselves to the point of exhaustion. It is definitely making me examine my love of the sport, as I love the horses and the competition.

I should have said dirt track racing, rather than American racing. We don't have it here in Australia so dirt racing is American racing in my head (well, we have some plough dirt and sand tracks but American dirt surfaces seem to be a fairly specific thing).

I just think the surface combined with the consistently (and perhaps unnecessarily?) fast sectional times are a contributor to the number and manner of these high profile breakdowns. It might be worth the authorities commissioning a study into sectional times versus breakdowns. My personal observation is that dirt racing tends to be a straight-ish line on a graph (fast fast fast fast for all sectionals) where turf racing is more commonly a inverted bell curve (fast steadier steadier fast). 10 years of race riding on over 2000 individual horses *definitely* tells me that if you can get away with slowing down to 12.5-13 to the furlong during mid race that it has significant benefits for the horse both in their finishing effort and their post race recovery. Obviously not every race scenario or horse allows that (like you said, there's loafers and there's also bolters).

I'm not sure how dirt racing would create the cultural change amongst trainers and jockeys to change the race pattern but I do think that changing that pattern in races would also change the methods in day to day training and the reduction in intensity would pay huge dividends with respect to all skeletal injuries and also possibly enabling horses to start more often. I'm currently riding several 8-12 year olds who have had more than 75 lifetime starts, which isn't that uncommon here, and I'm sure the UK has a lot of examples of that as well. Last season we had 35,103 horses start 177,354 times with a fatality rate under 0.01%. Looking at the 53 nominations for our 3yo+ G2 and G3 races in Sydney this coming Saturday, there isn't a single race where all of the entrants don't have at least 10 lifetime starts. The authorities should definitely be looking at that and asking why that isn't seen on the dirt very often. Whether its surface, breeding, speed, training methods, whatever. Answering that question should also answer the breakdowns question.

[Laura Smith]

re: surfaces. Mark Casse in TDN: https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/w ... s5GddEe3OM

[Autumn Blackmill]

re: surfaces. Mark Casse in TDN: https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/w ... s5GddEe3OM

This was a very interesting interview! Thanks for posting