Indian Flare And Imperial Eyes

How ironic that Russel Baze (photo) gets suspended for a whipping incident aboard Imperial Eyes down the stretch at Bay Meadows as that horse suffers a fatal condylar fracture, and exactly, on the same day as the Baze suspension, we turn to Saratoga to witness Javier Castellano pounding Indian Flare ten straight times down the stretch and one more for good measure after the poor filly fractured her pelvis.

What can you say? It's a tough, tough sport. I've yet to see the Baze incident, but could that have possibly been worse than what I just saw with Indian Flare? Do we blame the riders? give 'em days? Self-preservation will prevent any race rider intentionally persevering with a horse they think is going down. What about negligence or misjudgment? Watching the Indian Flare tape today, how can the rider in the heat of a race or in this case down the stretch possibly know what's going on physically with the horse, barring an obvious loss of action. At best there will be some considerable lead time between the injury, the effect on the action of the horse, and the perception registering with a jock in the heat of battle. We saw how long this took Sunday at Saratoga with Indian Flare where Javier Castellano was blameless imo. Bobby Frankel? Yet to hear a word from him. Thus, the usual!

As to the RR stable, catching things up since Friday--the horse of the moment seems to be Groovin' Wind. This has been Wind's sequence since last Wednesday:

Wed: 4 x 2.4f farm breeze.
Thurs. Off.
Frid. riderless 1 1/8 mile fast in the mud.
Sat. 1 1/4 miles in :17s.
Sun. 4 x 2.6f farm breeze probably in sub :13s. There were no stops between heats--only gallop downs and trots back to the starting point.

Last night's breeze was yet even a little faster than they have been, and rider Mr. Nob reported that the horse was strong every stride of all four heats. We tried to carry the speed just a little farther than the 2.4f course. One little chink in the armor appeared. This breeze was a real effort for the horse, and Nob reported a light whistling sound in the breathing. Wind has always been noted for his ability to breathe. Maybe as he's aged the wind pipe has narrowed a bit. We'll see.

I'd guess we have Wind to where he'd do a 1:44 mile. Depending on how the week goes, we might hit Eureka on Wed. Eureka got 1.26 inches of rain by Friday, so we stayed at the farm this weekend.

Art: --two out of last three days they've escaped the paddock as we commenced work in near dark. I'm having a little trouble with diminishing daylight right now. They got in a little work last night before they jumped out.