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Pooping in the Post Parade
Something that has been debated by horsemen and horseplayers for years is whether a horse pooping in the post parade is a positive or a negative indicator.
Some say the great Man o' War pooped heavily before the 1919 Sanford (reportedly as a result of eating Hattie's fried chicken) and then lost to Upset. Others point to Secretariat, who paused during the Belmont Stakes post parade and left a large deposit near the sixteenth pole. That pile was of course freeze dried and is now on display in the National Museum of Racing.
It's a topic that I haven't seen discussed in print since an article by Ray Taulbot in the August 1957 issue of American Turf Monthly, which advertised his short lived poop calculator, the predecessor to the pace calculator.
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