The Green Monkey

Now, I did steal this one off another blog. Quite fits the mood as RR fathoms how you injure a sixteen million dollar horse? If all the money, technology, exercise science, diagnostics, riders and so on fail this beautiful animal, is there any hope for the rest of us?

Todd Pletcher is a hard one for me to figure out. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, avoid innuendo and conviction by circumstantial evidence. We know how ridiculous the trainer responsibility rule can be, and also the absurdity of someone with a small thimble of smarts risking all to keep one horse running. Highly doubtful, and yet, this guy keeps giving off vibes that give RR the shivers.

GM might have been hurt before he ever landed in the Pletcher barn. Quite possible considering a world record furlong for a young horse under 130lbs--and it actually looked like more than that. The supposed gluteal injury more than likely is some sort of fracture. I had hoped the horse would succeed, that Pletcher would show some true colors. It might have been a story to help this sport, and perhaps it still might. Too early to give up yet. Probably wrong trainer, wrong training, and that's why it's on the blog.

There is one more little detour before I get to the fun stuff which is relating conventional training to all these injuries. I hope somewhere in me is enough to remove all doubt. But first, a closer look at the Lukas stable, horse per horse, how many races do they get, and how many of them get hurt. Next Post.

1/23/07: Day 1: Rest
1/24/07: Day 2: 15 min walk,trot, slow gallop (mostly gallop) under 30 lbs Astride in snow and mud. Then 15 min under tack first time in 10 days. Too much. Trainer had a brain freeze.
1/25/07: Day 3: have to rest today after yesterdays overdone w/o.