Discouraging Early Retirement

[bigmack]

Interesting idea from Finley of ESPN:

...For a sport where top-level horse racing has become little more than a set of auditions for the breeding industry, it's another case of business as usual.The industry continues to watch this happen, continues to see its popularity erode and continues to do nothing about it. That shouldn't be the case, and it doesn't have to be.

...Imagine what would happen if every Grade I race in the country, or even just the Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup races, were restricted to horses whose sires were 5-years-old or older at the time the horse was conceived.

Any horse retired prematurely and rushed off the racetrack after its 3-year-old campaign would be severely penalized as a stallion, at least for one year. Knowing that the progeny of a 4-year-old stallion would be ineligible for the sport's major races would scare people away from breeding to that stallion.

Breeders and owners would have no choice but to keep their horses in training at least through their 4-year-old years. In most cases, that would amount to delaying a stallion's career by one year; eminently fair when considering how much money could still be made breeding a horse and racing's desperate need to keep its stars performing in front of the public.

There would be no exceptions. The horse that was legitimately injured during their 3-year-old careers and could no longer race would just have to sit out a year before entering stud duty. Fair or not, that's the way it would have to be to keep people from faking injuries.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/hor...ill&id=2907909

[richrosa]

love this idea. It would almost have to work since everyone is chasing the classics anyway.

The big problem is getting the sport to agree to this. That's damm near impossible.

[Hank]

Great idea! Of course it'll never fly,the deep pocket set will see to that.

[Bobzilla]

Interesting idea and I agree with all of the above. Guess it would be naive of me to think the sponsers and networks could pull their support and broadcasts of horse racing until such a plan, or something similar, could be put into place.

[djjoe21]

That does sound good. Or you could try setting a cap on purses for 2yo and 3 yo. Maybe make 2yo races cap out at 100k make 3yo cap out at 200k or something along those line. Gradually getting higher during the 4yo season. That and maybe less graded stakes all over the country might help some.

Joe Ingram

[Tom]

Bad idea.

[Greyfox]

It would be nice to see colts running longer for sure.
But this idea ain't gonna fly. Not today. Not next year. Not in 50 years.

[alysheba88]

Sounds good in theory but you have to remember there will always be people looking to skirt any rules you put in place. What would stop the Arabs or someone else from stepping in and offering their own BC with triple the current purse structure with all horses welcome? I realize they can do that now, but you would be giving a perfect opening and reason

[alysheba88]

When all is said and done it comes down to one issue. The American racing fan's fascination/worship of three year old colts. Those are the horses that get glamorized and hyped and 95% of the time when people are talking about early retirement its three year old colts they are crying about.

Plenty of females run at 4 and above, plenty of turf horses, sprinters, etc.

Nothing will stop the connections of top three year old colts from retiring early, they do not care about you or the game so stop worshipping their horses.

[WJ47]

I think the idea is sound, but it probably would never be agreed on by the horsemen. I hate it when they retire a champion 3 year old because of a very minor injury. I think there is a darker reason for it though. I think that after a horse is brilliant as a two and three year old, alot of them taper off when they get older. Losses are bad for stud fees. Smarty Jones lost one race and they whisked him off to the breeding shed. I imagine they didn't even want to take the chance that he'd lose another. Before the cancer developed in Lost in the Fog, I remember one of his connections said that if he lost one more race, they'd probably retire him to stud because they didn't want that many losses on his record.

With the stud values of some of these colts, I can see the temptation to retire early and breed. From a fan's standpoint, it sucks. But one good horse could make you rich for the rest of your life. I can't say what I would do if I owned an undefeated 3 year old colt and people were offering me millions of dollars for him; I guess I'd be very tempted especially since anything can happen in horse racing in the next race.

[alysheba88]

Its all about stud values and breeding.

[Tom]

$10 million offer vs risk of breakdown every time you race.......Hmmmmmm.
Well, the SPORT wants me to run, so what's $10 million amoung friends!

[alysheba88]

Most horses are insured. Understand there are premiums which can be substantial. Just pointing out its not all or nothing

[point given]

Originally Posted by alysheba88

Most horses are insured. Understand there are premiums which can be substantial. Just pointing out its not all or nothing

R U sure of this? I've heard it is quite expensive and many are not . So if its a small syndicate, the lure of early retirement $ would be paramount, whereas if Tabor owned him, he could afford to be more sporting in running as a 4 yo. and affording the insurance .

[tholl]

Originally Posted by point given

R U sure of this? I've heard it is quite expensive and many are not . So if its a small syndicate, the lure of early retirement $ would be paramount, whereas if Tabor owned him, he could afford to be more sporting in running as a 4 yo. and affording the insurance .

Not sure that the big outfits, Godolphin and Coolmore etc insure any. With as many as they have the cost would be so high that it makes more sense to take your chances--basically self insure.