No BB apologist here but I doubt he is personally responsible for the percentages of horses who don’t make it through the Triple Crown wars. Back in the 60s, the series was nicknamed the “Cripple Crown” when so few made it through the races intact. The iron horses of the 70s and early 80s were somewhat of an anomaly (and ironically so many of them traced back to Raise A Native and Hail to Reason-neither of which ran past two).
Athletes get hurt full stop. Poor management doesn’t help but racehorses are athletes in a way that weekend ponies aren’t. I don’t care who you are, if you race horses, you are always a phone call away from a bad day. It is unbelievably difficult to keep horses together over a season which is why owners have to pick their conditioners with care. It is also why every win or even just a good race needs to be cherished.
What I have always found interesting about big time trainers like Bob and his clients is how lionized they often are by fans who turn their noses up at claiming races because they are unseemly I guess. But frankly, as an owner and breeder of some of those claiming horses and who had a blast when they did well, I have always thought about the separate incentive structure built into the graded stakes game. If you keep a horse together for 6 weeks --and its the right six weeks --the racing world can be your oyster. Now tell me who has the bigger incentive to push the boundaries, the trainers with the Saturday horses or the maiden claimers. Sure there are terrible trainers in both categories but most of the claiming horse trainers I know are pretty responsible because they really need their horses to stay in one piece over the long haul. You can’t keep clients if you can’t keep horses going in the claiming game but stakes trainers often just need a single big win and there has to be a temptation to get there whatever it takes.
Unfortunately that is not confined to racing.
