SHADES OF MICHAEL GILL???

[GARY Z]

Bruno Schickendanz rulled off Woodbine as a result of the
breakdown of Wake at Noon while breezing on Tuesday and
thereafter euthanized.

Incredibly, this former Canadian Horse of the year in 2002 was
in stud duty, ran in 2007 ,and died Tuesday at age 13


This owner deserves to be castrated and jailed for this manuever. :mad: :mad:

Needless to say, this is another bad story for the Thoroughbred game

[andymays]

I know Michael Gill is hated and has a bad reputation by just about everyone but I'm not sure the title of the thread is appropriate.

Having said that the situation at Woodbine is as bad as it gets.

[Horseplayersbet.com]

There are already two threads about this, including this one:
http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72387&page=1

[carlonr]

I am not in any way defending this particular owner.

I would like to add this comment to the equation. I have know owners that have absolutely loved their horses and retired them, only to pull them out of retirement later because the horse loved to race! Not saying that this was the case here, just that sometimes the decision to continue racing a horse is based on something other than greed. Some horses are just not happy unless they are racing on a regular basis.

[GARY Z]

[QUOTE=carlonr]I am not in any way defending this particular owner.

. Some horses are just not happy unless they are racing on a regular basis.


Carlon:

not to argue ,but you could also substitute owners for horses in this
last statenment.

While I understand some horses do relish racing, and pregnant mares
have often race and won., this poor horse was 13 at the point
of death.

I'm curious how Woodbine will be rule on the trainer who is as guilty
of this horror story as the owner.

[Horseplayersbet.com]

[QUOTE=carlonr]I am not in any way defending this particular owner.

. Some horses are just not happy unless they are racing on a regular basis.


Carlon:

not to argue ,but you could also substitute owners for horses in this
last statenment.

While I understand some horses do relish racing, and pregnant mares
have often race and won., this poor horse was 13 at the point
of death.

I'm curious how Woodbine will be rule on the trainer who is as guilty
of this horror story as the owner.
The trainer has been suspended.

Whether the suspensions hold or not is another thing. What almost everyone here can agree on is that the owner acted unconscionable. However, there are questions regarding whether the horse was allowed to work legally. The argument that he couldn't have a stall for at least a couple of hours is questionable. There are many ponies on the track who are ineligible to run, and they have stalls.
As for not being eligible to run at Woodbine, any horse who hasn't worked within a month isn't eligible to race, but they are allowed to workout to become eligible.
A win at Mountaineer would made Wake At Noon eligible to race at Woodbine I believe, if not this year, then next.
A lot of ifs here. If the horse had not broken down, I doubt the owner and trainer would be suspended at all, maybe a small fine, if he broke any of the above rules.
If this happened at Mountaineer, Woodbine would have probably done nothing.

All that being said, when it comes to integrity, and if Woodbine and/or the ORC can act on this as being an issue that "isn't good for the sport," then the book can be thrown at Schickedanz.

The trainer is in a bad position. Was he the one egging Schickedanz on to bring the horse to the track, or was this all Schickedanz's idea.

Schickedanz has many horses, and the trainer's livelihood depends on appeasing an owner's requests at time. This is a tough call when it comes to the trainer.