Cholly
05-26-2009, 04:59 PM
Yesterday I made my annual sojourn to Dallas (Grand Prairie, actually) for Lone Star Park’s Millions Day. In this part of the country, it’s our best chance to see top quality horses race. This year’s trip was marred by the injury and death of Flibberjibit—in a race where a new track record was established by a filly toting 11-1 odds.
That the turf course was brutally fast is beyond question. Wasted Tears may be a nice filly. But comparing her past performance level with the fact she ran a mile in 1:32 & 4/5 shouts that something was terribly amiss with the condition of this course. So I’m having difficulty brushing aside the possibility that Flibberjibit’s death resulted in part from the hardness of the turf.
By its nature, racing is a high stakes venture for both equine and man, with accidental injury and death seeming to be unavoidable. But was Flibberjibit’s death due to accident…or negligence? I don’t propose to know anything about turf course maintenance, or equine injuries; all I will say is that this looks suspicious to me…and that the name of the new holder of the track record is ironically appropriate.
That the turf course was brutally fast is beyond question. Wasted Tears may be a nice filly. But comparing her past performance level with the fact she ran a mile in 1:32 & 4/5 shouts that something was terribly amiss with the condition of this course. So I’m having difficulty brushing aside the possibility that Flibberjibit’s death resulted in part from the hardness of the turf.
By its nature, racing is a high stakes venture for both equine and man, with accidental injury and death seeming to be unavoidable. But was Flibberjibit’s death due to accident…or negligence? I don’t propose to know anything about turf course maintenance, or equine injuries; all I will say is that this looks suspicious to me…and that the name of the new holder of the track record is ironically appropriate.