Agreed, a lot is the PETA mentality, including I think the way “top” horses are barely run. That cannot be good conditioning to just jog and jog then a few spurts of going all out. Claimed still have to race a lot, but top horses barely do.
and dont under estimate how much people care about the great champions. To this day, every week, Claiborne Farm gets sent roses from all over the world to put on Secretariats grave, and he died 34 years ago. Ive been there and seen it...