Keith Knight condemns the current trend of retiring top three-year-old colts and fillies
The issue I refer to is the retirement of 3-year-old colts to the breeding sheds. I will also include the premature retirement of 3-year-old fillies.
Horses do not have a full complement of teeth until they are 5-years-old and yet horses, fillies and colts, are removed from training before they reach this significant age in the life-span of a horse. I exclude from my argument those horses who suffer serious injury, though not those with injuries that easily mend with time.
I have overflowing respect for the great owner-breeders, Prince Khalid Abdulla, Godolphin, the long-established studs, Coolmore (though less so since they named a horse Spanish Steps, a calumny I find hard to forgive) and hesitate to criticise them as without their contribution to our sport our lives would be greatly diminished. Yet I resent having to feel grateful to them when they keep a classic winner in training as a 4-year-old, as is the case with Enable.
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Esta historia es de la edición November 2017 de Racing Ahead.
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