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Fun Horse Names for Our Thoroughbred Born on January 1st - He's Going to the Kentucky Derby. What name should this horse have?
Born First Run First - Perfect name for a horse we expect to win a lot of stake races
6%
Happy New Year Baby - With all the money this horse will earn, it's going to be a great racing year!
3%
Follow Your Elders - Born before the other horses, this is a perfect name for a leader on his way to the Triple Crown.
9%
Can Run From Day One - Born early and ready to race. Bring on the bed of roses!
17%
January's First - This guy will be first on that First Saturday in May when he crosses the finish line for the Kentucky Derby.
66%
Total votes: 35
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Thoughts
Posted on: Sun, 09/07/2008 - 2:10pm
Thoughts
There is talk that Horse Racing needs to form some sort of league for older horses to make it more financially viable to keep the horses on the track after their 3yr old season.
So using the horse files I am going to start a 4yr plus league for older horses starting with the year 2000. Run a complete calendar year using current races and some I have come up with, using a Breeders Cup point system and ending with a Championship race in October for the horses who qualify.
My main question is should I combine Dirt and Turf races and possibly end with a Synthetic Championship? Or should I just stick with Dirt races. Some feel a great horse can run on either surface.
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Comments
Good luck in your endeavors. Keep us posted. Keeping the good one's around for another year would be good for the sport. Personally, I sometimes think that abolishing 2 year old racing, to allow for those bones to mature on these youngsters might not be a bad idea. Just a thought.
Then, start them as 3 year olds and race them for 2 years, as they do now for most of the good ones. Getting back to your idea, they could create something along the lines of the Triple Crown races, ( possibly same distances and possibly same tracks ) but with mature horses. In a way, the good 3 year old Triple Crown horses would get a second chance to prove themselves.
I understand the reasoning for getting the good ones off the track as soon as possible. But this is also hurting thoroughbred horse racing overall, in my opinion. You could kill 2 birds with one stone.
Horses are still growing through their fifth year, as I understand. With that said, we're probably not seeing the full potential of any of our Grade 1 stars. Could you imagine what we're missing? Look at the great, Exterminator ( 100 races ). Of course they had no choice with him. He was a gelding, as I recall. Hope my memory hasn't failed me. At any rate, he got better with age. This is what we're missing. This is what the sport needs. I use Exterminator as an example.
In your game, I wouldn't be opposed to mixing dirt and turf conditions for your trials, but not the newer synthetics, which btw, I'm not sold on. A good horse, a great horse, should be able to handle both, in my opinion. I know this could be argued.
I think it depeds on how much time you want to dedicate to the project. I would think one division would be easier, to run. But having dirt turf and synthetic would be fun too. I would keep the division seperate since some horse though just cant handle turf or vice versa
commish, i tried a similar experiment on the older version of the game. I mixed the distances and surfaces with point systems and such. Let me spare you most of the drama, Secretariat will be prominent throughout.
I am starting with horses who were active in 2000 so he wont be dominating that year....
I think both dirt and turf...Great horses can run on both.
I think a couple of things should be done to try and control the amount of racing horses do in our country, and their durability. I agree with what was said earlier about no 2 year old races. They just aren't neccessary or that meaniful. Basically, what I would do is move everything back a year. E.g. the triple crown is for 4 year olds, BC juvinile for 3 year olds, etc. There could also be 2 sets of triple crown races (one for 3 year olds, one for 4 year olds). Also, I think the minimum age to stand at stud should be 5 years old. Now that doesn't mean that a horse has to run in their 4 year old year, but all of the benifits would come from them running in their 4 year old campaign. I think this would bring a lot of excitement to our sport. Just imagine if we got to see horses like BB and Curlin run in open competition for an entire year(4 year old and 5 year old) and race like 5 times. That would be fantastic.
I agree, Dan. This is exactly what I was trying to say in my earlier post. I think we're both onto something. As 4 year olds, we could have the Kentucky Maturity, the Preakness Maturity and finally, the Belmont Maturity. Yes, no 2 year old racing and yes, perhaps 2 sets of Triple Crown races, for both years. Derby implies 3 year olds, so I substitute Maturity, which means older horses.
It's always been so discouraging to me to have all this hype each year, built around our Derby contenders and Triple Crown contenders, only to never see these great horses again, because they head for the breeding sheds. Then, we start all over.
I think, for the good of the sport, it's time for changes like the ones we suggest and both agree on.
Good luck with your league. I've been considering doing something very similar to that, just running races that could have actually been run(horses from same time period, correct ages, etc.). Keep us updated!
Please tell me how this works?
Thanks. Joe