I'll Have Another: Risk of running Vs certainty of studding

I know next to nothing about horse racing. But that still doesn’t stop me from being cynical about it. Any chance that the owners of IHA decided to pull him out of the Belmont Stakes primarily because, remembering what happened to Barbaro - who blew out his leg in the Preakness and subsequently had to be put down, thus ending before it began what could have been a long and lucrative career of studding - they did not want to risk the same outcome?

From a dollars and cents perspective, it would seem that the possibility of winning the triple crown, glorious though that may be, might not be worth the financial risk of possibly killing the cash cow. After all, IHA has sufficiently proven himself to be of good stock, and the money to be gained by studding must be a high prospect.

There’s plenty of reason to be cynical - link.

I expect the profit motive does figure into this. But in this case the profit motive also dovetails with considering the safety of the horse and not risking his life for a race, so I don’t see much to be cynical about. The really cynical act would be racing the horse in spite of the injury because they want the higher stud fee.

If an animal’s worth as a stud after winning a “mere” 2/3 of the Triple Crown leads the owners to retire him after developing a leg problem rather than going for the full TC and risking losing him entirely I don’t see that as a problem, really. It’s certainly better for the horse. Even if Barbaro had survived and healed from his injury he would have been a crippled horse, and possibly unable to mate even if he could live out a normal life, and thus worth sharply less. A stud Thoroughbred with the accomplishment of winning even one of the the Triple Crown races lives a pretty decent life for a horse. One that that has one two even more so. There’s still much money to be made from stud fees, money that requires no further risk.

All in all, I’d rather see I Have Another retire now and live out a full life than push him into a race with an injury.

To be sure, running IHA and winning the race would not only be a nice one-time payout, but also up the breeding fees substantially over the long haul. But running and injuring - game over. Any chance this “injury” was invented or at least played way up to give the owners a legitimate front for pulling him out and avoiding the financial risk (with the nice side effect of playing the part of nobly sacrificing of a chance at glory to ensure the safety of the magnificent beast)?

I don’t think they were facing any financial risk if he ran (healthy) and lost.

Oly, I’m not sure what you’re getting at here. You seem to be implying something sinister in the owners withdrawing I’ll Have Another from the Preakness. There is nothing that I can see that indicates this is anything but an injured horse being retired to stud. Since that is the ultimate purpose of a racing champion this is just speeding it up slightly - it would be unlikely that they would continue to race him after a Triple Crown win simply because he would be too valuable as a stud to risk injury or death on the track.

I don’t think the injury is faked - really, there is no obligation on the part of an owner to enter a horse into any race and owners are free to retire their animals at any time, for any reason.

Why do you seem convinced there is something shady going on here? It seems about as UNshady as things get in horse racing.

I know nothing about horse racing, but couldn’t they just collect as much semen as possible and store it in liquid nitrogen as insurance?

No - by rule, thoroughbreds must be the result of “live cover” - artificial insemination is not allowed.

Actually, he ran in the Preakness - and did rather well.

Oh. Guess my idea woulda come up if it was a viable work-around.

Did not know that. Learn something new everyday.

If anyone is wondering why the “live cover” rule exists - it’s to prevent inbreeding. Otherwise, one champion could potentially sire an entire generation or two of Thoroughbreds, resulting in a generation of siblings and half-siblings to breed the next generation… which is probably a bad idea.

One champion can still sire a LOT of offspring, but the live cover rule means there is a practical limit.

That video is chilling. Makes me hate horse racing just a little bit more.

His stud fees will be a fraction of what they would have been if he’d won the Triple Crown, and if he’d been able to move on and win the Breeder’s Cup. It is partially about the money–he certainly is worth enough that it makes retiring him easier than rehabbing him and getting him ready for a fall campaign–but not all. There are other trainers with more nefarious reputations who would have pulled out their dirty bag of tricks and made him run, and there are owners that would be livid and make it clear to the trainer that They Want Him To Run So Make Him Run. Not everyone is a selfish jerk about their horses. (Now, had this been Rick Dutrow/Ian Biancone/D. Wayne Lukas, I would assume there was some selfish reason behind the decision, because it sure as heck wouldn’t be about the horse’s welfare.)

Regarding the injury: injured tendons are a bitch to heal. Horses have no muscle below the knees and hocks, so tendons absorb all the stresses of movement. When a tendon is injured, the cannon bone (large bone between the knee and ankle) begins taking a disproportionate amount of stress, and can and has resulted in horses breaking down. They caught IHA’s injury before it became significant, before he was even lame on it. Even so, he’s going to need 3+ months of recovery before he’s sound again just to have unrestricted movement. When my mare tore a tendon sheath–just the lining around the tendon–she was confined to her stall for a month, and was unrideable for two. Even then, it was walking only for another month.

For those who write off racing as cruel, well, certainly, with some human connections. But what I have learned from the horse world is this: there are monsters in every equestrian sport who are willing to do unspeakable horrors to their breed of choice in the name of money, winning, fame, and success. World champion saddlebreds feet overinjected with cobra venom to exaggerate movement the night before a major show, resulting in the euthanasia of four of the five. An entire team of world class polo ponies collapsing and dying as they came off the plane from illegally (and improperly) mixed supplements. World champion Tennessee walker horses being “sored” and beaten when they show any sign of pain, so as not to suggest to the preshow inspector that they are in agony. Quarter horses having the nerve in their tail severed so they remain still in the show ring, or galloped on a lungeline for 45+min until they are dripping sweat so they are dead quiet in the show ring. Arabians having ginger inserted into their rectum to exaggerate their famed high-tailed action, or undergoing plastic surgery to mask conformation faults.

What I have learned is there are legitimate horseman in every sport who are able to succeed while loving and caring for their animals, and those who just plain SUCK and need to have done to them what is done to their horses under their “care.”

If anything, racing is working at being cleaner now than 34 years ago when the last Triple Crown winner passed under the Belmont Park wire. But it’s also working at being much more transparent–which certainly makes things look damn ugly.

O’Neill is no saint, but he has apologized for his mistakes and is publically voicing his desire to change and educate himself–as opposed to the Dutrows of the racing world, who deny, deny, DENY and shove blame on their assistants, grooms, veterinarians…anyone and everyone else. O’Neill has also gained tremendous respect for the horse community, both racing and pleasure, for this choice. He and the rest of the connections put the horse first when they honestly could have attempted to run with wraps and such, hoping that tendon doesn’t tear further and the horse manages to improve their value with either a win or decent showing. Then they could claim afterward the horse sustained an injury in the race and retire him, and then begin rehabbing that tendon. But with that comes tremendous risk–to the horse. They opted not to take it and do right by the horse, not just gamble for the financial and personal fame super jackpot.

Still, why not freeze a few gallons anyway?

Legitimate breeding (live cover) = $500,000 stud fee.
Sale of one aliquot of semen, cash sales only, cannot lay claim to his name = $5,000.

For someone who wants a nice horse but doesn’t have big bucks. . .

Missed the edit window, but here are links detailing the show horse abuses I describe above:

Saddlebreds injected with poison. The article suggests it was a mystery and the owner is wanting to know who murdered their horses. The scuttlebutt in the horse world is it may well have been the trainer (unknown to the owner) using cobra venom–not an uncommon thing to use, believe it or not–and over-injecting them. The case was never completely decided, but the unofficial consensus is it wasn’t an attack, but a mistake.

21 polo ponies collapse and die after being given an supplement improperly mixed by a Florida pharmacy. The supplement was not legal or available in the US–so the team owner paid this pharmacy to make it from scratch.

Tennessee Walkers trained by one of the leaders in the industry shown on video being beaten, sored, and in so much agony they are unable to get up from their stall beds. This was on ABC News just within the last month or two.

Gingering

Tail blocking

I’m not sure why not, but I would presume the following complications get in the way: 1) The stud has to be trained on how to be collected, and that is time consuming and risky. 2) If they can get $150,000 (I believe that’s the highest stud fee right now) for live cover, and just $5000 for AI that does not benefit the stud at all (foals would be unregisterable), why even bother? Just book more mares. Some stallions shuttle back and forth from the northern and southern hemispheres and breed more than 100 mares a year.

Also, if I want to breed a quality horse but don’t have big bucks, $5,000 will get me a nice pleasure horse stallion. I cannot register and thus cannot race the foal resulting from AI, so I would have no reason to want the semen of a $100,000+ stud. I’d be better off spending a few thousand on one of his less accomplished offspring, half siblings, or cousins for my nonracing purposes.