12 year old running 121st race

[mysaladdays]

I keep my eye on a few like this in my virtual stable. 

12 years old, record 120-26-19-24    $568,243

Last time he won was in 2021. 

Presume he knows no other life and they treat him well.  12 is a bit much though, if you ask me. 


Should we have an age limit or not?  Just curious as to what others think.

[shoes]

I think that there should be. Even though we cannot know as to any one specific case whether a given horse is too old or not. On average at some point the risks of breakdown push to a percentage that we wouldn't be willing to risk it. For a given horse that age might be 10, or 8 or 6, but on the whole, I think an age should be chosen, what that number is, I'm not competent to say. Of course there are other factors with respect to this horse. What are his alternatives? Would he be turned ou out in a pasture to enjoy his remaining years? or would he be killed? This is relevant to me.

[mysaladdays]

All good observations. I don't have the answer. If we had standardized rules and regs we'd have a set racing age. While we know that most higher end horses are very well cared for, we cannot pretend there are some jurisdictions down in _______ where that isn't true.

IMHO there has to be a plan for every horse who has carried a jockey on their back and/or made $$ (or not) for the bettors and connections. (And getting thrown on the meat truck shouldn't be one of them.)

The other thing is that you can't tell me that a horse of this age (12) who has run 120 races isn't most probably pretty arthritic by now.

So that brings in another consideration ---- will his last day be a DNF on the race track, while carrying a human being on his back? That puts a human being at great risk for injury or death.

We need clear limits based on good veterinary practices and research, and we need to have a plan in place for horses in our barns. I feel they *deserve* that.

[1hooper]

Name?

[mysaladdays]

May 12, 2023 13:27:50 GMT -5 1hooper said:

Name?

I will PM to you.   Not looking to out any horse or trainer publically, just one that caught my eye. 

[mattcoll]

Suppose 10 years was the cutoff. I'd worry about the way 9 y/o horses would be treated at the end of the year at the cheap tracks to squeeze whatever is left of them before forced retirement.

[cherokeescot]

There should definitely be an age restriction but I wouldn’t just limit it to horses !

[ozzy]

I thought the maximum racing age was 12, meaning a horse cannot run at age 13.

[mysaladdays]

May 12, 2023 17:04:46 GMT -5 mattcoll said:

Suppose 10 years was the cutoff. I'd worry about the way 9 y/o horses would be treated at the end of the year at the cheap tracks to squeeze whatever is left of them before forced retirement.

Suppose 12 years is the cutoff.   

Squeezing whatever is left of a 9 year old,  as opposed to squeezing whatever is left of a 12 year old,  simply becomes a matter of being able to run about 40 more races between the ages of 9 and 12. 


When you are already up to 121 lifetime races, I guess it doesn't matter anyway.       But, it's not just an age thing, it's about how much wear n' tear you've put on your 12 year old body. 


Why I support racehorse retirement funds to be kept somewhere on the books for the horses themselves, because they've earned it.  I just want to know they'll have a "soft landing" in sight, that includes the most humane solution for their retirement. 

[cherokeescot]

Coincidentally 9 y o Red Knight won the Grade 1 Man O’ War at Belmont today. Because of the rules applied by NYRA he won’t be able to defend his title next year.

[1hooper]

3 10yo's at Finger Lakes on Monday.

[cherokeescot]

Part of the crazy state of horse racing that Finger Lakes (not part of NYRA) has different rules from the other tracks in New York State.