Injured/Retired

Jeremy Noseda Retiring it seems. All fairly abrupt all be it he has been in serious decline over the past few years.

Thought he had a nice 3yo sprinter too in Garrus. Wonder where he will go.

Devastating

Terrible news.
She was a great horse in a small yard, and owned by the family.
They have gone from the top of the world to the pits of despair in an instant.

m

tryfix wrote: »

Sea Of Class has died after she was put to sleep having failed to recover from Lymphoma which was the reason she originally had a surgery which turned into colic.

https://www.racingpost.com/news/latest/last-years-arc-second-sea-of-class-loses-battle-against-colic-illness/391514

Sad indeed, she was really special, reckon her best days were still possibly ahead of her. Not to be unfortunately

Emergency surgery for nothing wrong with him...

IAMAMORON wrote: »

I know, sure Lance Armstrong was innocent for 10 years also.

Tell me this, if there have been 73 winners of the Arc since 1946 and 18 winners were fillies. would you not find it strange that 8 of those fillies have won it in the last 11 years? Furthermore 5 fillies won it in the 8 years between 1976 and 1983.

Do you not find that a bit of a statistical anomaly? If you take out those two "spells" of fillies winning the Arc there are only 5 winners in 60 years?

What do you reckon?

Firstly anyone who thinks that racing isn't riddled with drug taking is wilfully naive. However the fillies gaining a particular advantage is a new one to me. I would have put geldings as being the category hugely advantaged by the likes of Bute.

The rise of the fillies is easily explained. The 3lbs sex allowance and the fact that 13years ago the French Colts used to win most Arcs. The French Colts won the Arc in 2006 2005, 2004, 2003, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1994, 1992, 1991, 1990.

When the French Derby was 12f it produced bucketloads of Arc winners. That changed in 2005 when Hurricane run won the Arc after finding 10f too short for him in the 2005 French Derby. The last French Colt to win the Arc was Raillink in 2006

In abandoning the 12f 3yo classic the French have essentially destroyed their greatest race as they simply aren't at the races with their 12f 3yo colts. No 3yo colts means that the 3yo fillies have stepped into the gap, there's no reluctance about running at 12f for the best fillies, the best young stallions on the other hand tend to avoid 12f once the English-Irish Derby double is over.

Also a good Epsom Derby winner will win an Arc, but Coolmore don't train their 3yo colts to win the Arc so there's really just Gosden left to produce Arc winning 3yo colts.

tryfix wrote: »

Firstly anyone who thinks that racing isn't riddled with drug taking is wilfully naive.

Are you talking about drug taking or doping? Huge difference.

This stuff is hillarious lads. Getting a good laugh off it. Keep it going.

zpehtsfd wrote: »

Are you talking about drug taking or doping? Huge difference.

Drug taking.

Where it crosses the line into doping is hard to know as it's based on regulations that may well be insufficient to detect performance enhancement. There has been very little openness about what goes on in Europe compared to what goes on in the States.

There's the letter of the law when it comes to therapeutic drug treatments and then there's the masking of treatments and being ahead of the testers. I'd assume that it's a hopelessly complicated picture on a spectrum from allowing horses to withstand training to downright skulduggery.

If it looks too good to be true it probably is too good to be true. When the Godolphin horses came back from wintering in Dubai and mopped up in the UK top races, the natural suspicion was that they were being trained hard with drugs in Dubai and were then physically superior to the rest when they came back to Newmarket. When Encke deprived Camelot of The Triple Crown it was little surprise that he was doped, but anyone who opened their mouths previously to his being caught would have been slapped down.

The picture is very complicated, you'll sometimes see smaller trainers with only a fraction of the training facilities and therapies of the big trainers go on a winning spree with a great horse of theirs whose career and soundness matches the best of the big boys. It's very hard to guage what advantages are being taken because there's a wall of silence around these matters in Europe.