Injury is a legitimate, straightforward reason of course but when you consider the cloud of rumors and investigations already surrounding the trainer you have to wonder.
And if it was an injury wouldn’t it already be reported as such?
Horse racing, like boxing, needed a good story rather than another black eye. But horse racing, to paraphrase the late Bert Sugar’s comment about boxing, ran out of black eyes long ago.
The problem with the Belmont’s 1.5 mile length is that many owners don’t want to risk stud contracts if their horse should break down in the final leg of the Triple Crown.
After what happened to Ruffian all of those years ago, I could never really get into horse racing after that.