And Their Off

Oops, Baffert is the trainer, not the owner.

I'm luke-warm at best about horses. Don't get me wrong, I love them as animals in their own right and enjoy petting them, but I was riding with friends once and the stallion my friend was riding tried to kick the mare I was on, but instead kicked me so hard the doctor almost had to amputate my leg. I'll pet, feed and groom them, but I'm not enthusiastic about getting on one's back again.

Correct. He is owned by Ahmed Zayat of Zayat Stables, LLC, trained by Bob Baffert

In my opinion, he is not as gorgeous as Secretariat; I suspect there will never be a horse as beautiful as that champion.

But he is a fine looking animal...and he has managed to do something very, very difficult for an athlete to do.

I admire him.

Apropos of nothing, after Secretariat passed on, the doctors that did the post-mortem determined that his heart was around 2.75 times larger than the average horse. approximately 28 lbs. Average weight of the heart of a horse is approx. 9 lbs.

Maybe he had a cardiomyopathy

That was my first thought, too.

Having cardiomyopathy, I thought the same thing. I still wonder if that is not true. However, the article refers to this as' X factor'.

However, all that being said, putting my thinking cap on, that is talking about genetic traits and such. Is his condition is the same condition as found in human athletes - enlarged heart? With my lay understanding of it, this means cardiomyopathy. But is it benign or not? Is it cardiomyopathy or not?

We may wrongly be assuming that such an enlarged heart = cardiomyopathy. Now, whether or not he had obstructive cardiomyopathy or arrhythmia, that is the true question. I have that, but others may not. In my situation, at some point a portion of my heart (septal), blocks blood flow when it becomes engorged with blood. In a heart with uniform enlargement, heart may have a complete blood flow.

actually a cardiomyopathy does strengthen the hert in the earliest tages. But, as I understand, the muscle becomes less and less plastic as the condition progresses, and various chambers enlarge non uniformly. So yeh.

Never knew that.

Secretariat was just gorgeous...a truly beautiful horse. And a great champion.

I understand the concerns many have voiced about the thoroughbred racing game...and agree with much of it. But occasionally there is a magnificent athlete comes along in the form of a horse...and we've been talking about a couple here in this thread.

Ive collected fountain pens for years and Ive got 2 silks of Superhorses. (Conklin Company has made these great fountain pens with colors of silks worn by some horses. I have the NY Jockey club silks (which are a brown and yellow checked pattern on the barrel (The jockey club silks are different from the winning horses stable)
I also have Secretariat's farm (Meadow Stables) which is a neat blue an white checkered pattern. NOW, Im going to have to go out and buy the pen that is of the Farm where American Pharoah resides.
The pens are NOT like many of the other specialized designs (like Mont blanc did a DALI pen for only 5500$).

The Conklin pens had always been under 50 bucks when I bought em while I was still following horsies.

Pharoah's colors are a really sucky metallic turquoise and what looks like Chartreuse polka dots. MAn its gonna be ugly. If the pen costs mre than 100$, Ill pass until I can find one in an auction.

I guess the colors still available are limited, because you're right, Pharaoh's silks are dreadful.

Did you see the jockey donated his winnings to the fight for children's cancer?

Yes - though I didn't describe the charities on my post and I messed up, later correcting, who the Bafferts are. There's a link here with the charities:

http://able2know.org/topic/280440-2#post-5968515

Oh, okay. I had skipped much of the thread, because it was bringing me down to read about cruelty to the horses.

Oh, I understand, for sure.

Interestin - the trainer and his wife's winnings donations were going to helping horses after their racing days.

I get Farmer's point of view.
Still, I like the beauty.

His final race yesterday--the Breeders' Cup--was a beautiful win...

Smiles..