California Chrome is one of the better horses I have ever seen, trained by a real old time horseman. I don't want to say Sherman is racing him "cold", but I highly doubt the horse is getting the type of pre-race that the modern drugstore cowboys like Baffert use. It's frustrating to see a horse like Arrogate going in his fifth lifetime start run down a real champion like Chrome.

Do we really believe that Baffert had a horse for the ages last year and then as soon as that one retired he came up with an even better one? Baffert must be the luckiest sonuvabitch alive! His horses just don't get tired. Defrong shook off Masochistic and looked like he could have run another mile without anyone catching him. Whatever he is lighting these horses up with, this motherfucker should be taken right out of the winner's circle in handcuffs.

Is Juddmonte going to buy one of the spots in the Pegasus for Arrogate? It should be interesting anyway.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

There's little doubt in my mind that just like there are companies with a mission to come up with a new drug cocktail to get around Olympic testing, there's the exact same thing happening with horses. I'm sure at one point horses were getting it done like Babe Ruth with just hot dogs and beer, but as technology moves forward and there are more and more trainers trying to compete for shrinking amounts of money, there's going to be a natural tendency to come up with something to bend the rules.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

Yeah, I don't think you can race a horse cold at the top level and be successful. The standard rule is "nothing on race day." That means the horse is supposed to be going on nothing but hay, oats, and water, with the exception of state-approved medications like bute or lasix which are listed in the program.

Now, from the horseman's perspective, "nothing on race day" means nothing that will show up in post-race testing after you win. So you basically have vets measuring when they can give the treatment so that it will be effective while not showing up at the spit box.

There seems to be much more awareness of this stuff in harness racing. An equivalent of Bob Baffert in harness racing would elicit head shaking by angry bettors and panic combined with disgust in the powers that be. We've had guys like that. Bill Robinson and Monte Gelrod come to mind. There was a lot of hand-wringing from the old guard over these guys winning classic races. People grumble when a guy lights one up in a 20 claimer, but doing it on the biggest stage is another matter. And in thoroughbred racing, instead of this guy becoming a pariah, he's celebrated like he's Ben Jones or Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don