California Chrome Owner: Belmont Winner Took 'Coward's Way Out'

Breitbart News ^ | June 7, 2014 | Breitbart California

[This Just In]

On Saturday, after California Chrome lost his chance to become horse racing's first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978, co-owner Steve Coburn went off during a post-race interview, saying it's a "coward's way out" for owners to only run their horses in one of the three Triple Crown races.

[Pelham]

Secretariat, greatest horse ever...

[Axenolith]

Bull crap, he was injured out of the gate. He would have won it of not for that.

[Axenolith]

Missed pot of gold?!?! He’s up something like 4 million on the first two races and the horses stud book is full. He’s going to make bank there, and you can bet your a** that there will be a “Seabiscuit II” type feel good movie that probably rakes him more than the whole race career.

[ltc8k6]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/horseracing/2014/06/07/california-chrome-sustains-gash-to-foot/10188807/

California Chrome sustained a foot injury during the race.

[Gefn]

Well said!

Besides, won’t he make a lot of money now from stud fees ?

[This Just In]

He didn’t win, and as far as the outcome without the injury; we’ll never know.

[Axenolith]

I just listened to the owner being questioned afterwards too, and MAN, people on here are going off into hyperbolic space over it. He gave his opinion, and it wasn’t all ranty, a tiny bit of emotion at the end but sheesh, from reading the thread you’d have thought he was going all dervish over it...

[This Just In]

Pardon me, but judging by all of your comments, you seem to be the one that’s being a little touchy.

I pointed out that Mr. Coburn’s comment was undignified. After all, he accused the winning owner of being a coward. It’s rather amusing to see you appear on this thread-stomping your feet and going on about Mr. Coburn’s non-ranty, “tiny bit emotion” comment while frying other Freepers for simply expressing their own opinion.

[Old Retired Army Guy]

Secretariat won the KY Derby and Preakness in record times and went on to win the Belmont by 21 lengths. When you talk about great horses you think of War Admiral, Seabisquit, Citation and then the greatest of them all...Secretariat.

[This Just In]

As a couple of Freepers pointed out moments ago, it appears that the horse may have sustained an injury during the race. Whether or not California Chrome would’ve won the race is a mystery we’ll never know the answer to. Although, any future races will tell us more about this horse.

[MD Expat in PA]

It seemed that in the 70’s there was a new triple crown winner every few years. And now it has been 38 or something.

There were 3 Triple Crown winners in the 1970’s: Secretariat ’73; Seattle Slew ’77 and Affirmed ’78. Before that the last one was Citation ’48 along with 3 others in the 40’s and 3 in the 30’s. There was an 11 year gap between the 1st in 1919, Sir Barton and the next in 1930, Gallant Fox.

There was a 25 year gap between Citation and Secretariat; it’s been 36 years since Affirmed won in 1978.

http://www.horseracingnation.com/content/triple_crown_winners#

This breaks down the TC winners of the 70’s and the near misses since.

http://www.cbssports.com/general/eye-on-sports/24583100/recent-triple-crown-winners-and-near-misses

So there's that. Three of the horses that foiled Triple Crown bids ran in both the Derby and the Preakness, while four ran in either the Derby or the Preakness, and three ran in neither.

In short, Coburn's argument is flimsy. While there have been instances of horses being held out of the Preakness to run in the Belmont, it's hardly the norm, nor does it seem to be a case of targeting, as Coburn suggested.

So let's wrap it up: Is it hard to win the Triple Crown? Yes. Is it impossible? No.

[MD Expat in PA]

Thanks for that insight. Interesting.

I found this interview with Secretariat’s owner Penny Chenery and jockey Ron Turcotte and training before the Belmont:

http://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/reliving-secretariats-magical-ride-40-years-later/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Q. How was Secretariat training leading to the race?

CHENERY The trainer had the choice of easing up on him because he had two hard races, or intensifying the training. Feeling that he was at a stage in his training where he could only get stronger, he chose to put the screws to him and train him hard. He was able to live up to the pressure and get stronger. Secretariat was a very intelligent horse, and he understood the training program and realized that he was being asked to do more and more, and he chose to ask more of himself.

Q. Will there ever be another Triple Crown winner?

CHENERY There could well be, but I think it will take an extraordinary horse because in today’s racing programs, we don’t race them so often. Today, you tend to race a horse maybe once every six weeks. We just aren’t training them to be under that much pressure.

[mcmuffin]

CC can retire to a life of stud fees and green pasture.

The grass aint so green when gelded!!

[Gay State Conservative]

[DaveA37]

There are millions of kids who have nothing to eat right here in our own country. Moooooooooooochelle cut their calories in the only meals those kids got per day, now that they are out of school where is the next meal coming from? And we all get excited about some damn horse race????????

[miss marmelstein]

It is a beautiful horse. He injured himself in the foot at the starting gate. That’s bad luck and I hope he doesn’t have to be put down.

[ncpatriot]

I was ten feet from Secretariat after he won the Derby. All I can remember about that was how big he was. Never saw a horse so big

[dinoparty]

I don’t get this guy’s point at all. What makes the Triple Crown so elusive (and therefore such an achievement) is precisely that a single horse enters all three races and wins them all DESPITE having the disadvantage of racing all three races.

[BlueStateRightist]

Thanks for the detailed post. Very informative. That said, CC was fairly close to the lead the entire race, and apparently well-positioned, according to his jockey. But, lending credence to your assertion of poor training, CC in the backstretch was unable to go into high gear.

[Dr. Sivana]

You can’t compare a ball game to a horse race. A horse race is a race. A ball game is a sport in which teams are playing at bats and on the field through 9 or more innings. You have 9 players on the field. The object of the game is to out-pitch, out-bat, outperform and outscore the opposing team.

Most sports have variations on this. For instance, in baseball, a team that has to play a seven game playoff against a weak opponent will not be able to start the World Series with its ace pitcher against the team that drew a weak opponent beaten in four games.

The top two division winners per conference in the NFL get a bye week, even if the next game is against a wild card team with a better record.

Basketball and hockey both have long playoff seasons where teams playing seven games have to play teams that have been waiting after a 4-0 run against a weak opponent.

Oh, and should Man O'War been disqualified from the Belmont Stakes? He skipped the Derby itself.