Tag Archives: Triple Crown

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Emil Guillermo: What if they had a Triple Crown Winner and no one cared?

That about sums up my feeling about American Pharoah’s (sic) win at the Belmont. It wasn’t Affirmed/ Alydar. It wasn’t Secretariat. It was a colt going wire-to-wire against an undistinguished field. Is that really worth celebrating.

That it took nearly 40 years to have another Triple Crown winner isn’t really about the greatness of A.P. It’s more that the game, the breed has degenerated into a drug-mired enterprise that has changed the nature of horse racing in America.

I wrote this last year amid the California Chrome hype around the Belmont, and it all still applies.

http://aaldef.org/blog/not-my-fathers-horse-races.html

If the Triple Crown really mattered it would be on the tip of everyone’s tongue

Astonishing how little if any buzz the victory had.

Here’s what really happened at Belmont yesterday. One horse died, one was vanned off, and American Pharoah won the big race. That’s some crownless triple.

 

animal rights, news

Triple Crown hopes dashed as I’ll Have Another is scratched from Belmont; Let the speculation begin about trainer “Drug” O’Neill

It’s too bad we can’t take Doug O’Neill, the trainer for I’ll Have Another at face value. Tendonitis? I just think all the scrutiny given to the Belmont and the special detention barn made it impossible for the trainer to perform his “magic.” O’Neill’ has a record of using drugs to get horses to run through their ailments. It’s hard not to stop any further speculation now. 

The only real positive here  is that the horse was scratched in the end.

It’s not the happy ending O’Neill and the racing establishment needed and wanted. But it’s the right thing and the humane thing. I’ll Have Another is spared exposure to a breakdown.  In the long run that’s far better than any false glory that O’Neill may have been chasing.