Who's to say that Tonalist wouldn't have won the Derby and Preakness and had the triple crown himself? Coburn might consider that he's lucky Tonalist wasn't in the other 2.
From 1961 until his own record was broken, Roger Maris had to live with an asterisk next to his name because he played in 162 games instead of the 154 of Babe's day.
Changing the rules now would taint the achievement of any future Triple Crown winner. It would make it easier and less meaningful to win.
Initially, I was strongly on the "it's not fair" side, but after reading several more stories and comments by a knowledgeable friend, I realized my position was rather shallow and didn't take into account all the particulars.
There's never been a Triple Crown winner who ran against a field at Belmont that wasn't comprised primarily of fresh horses. Belmont is the toughest of the three races to win because there is a fresh field, the track is longer and it comes with a relatively short rest for any horse that ran the previous two races. That's what makes the Triple Crown so hard to win, and that's a good thing.
Only in our society of "nobody should get their feelings hurt" and "every child deserves a gold star" would we think winning the Triple Crown shouldn't be tough and rare.
I agree with you Howard, I still love Steve Coburns passion for his horse and the whole story behind it .And the look on his wife's face after his rant was priceless. lol
Steve coburns has a valid argument. The horses that run in the kentucky derby reached that field of 20 , 19 this year , based on a point system in which they earned by previous races leading up to the derby. The preakness stakes and the belmont stakes do not require that system to be entered into the field. Mr. Coburns point is....you have fresh horses in the field at the belmont , that never earned enough points to race in the kentucky derby . I hear you mr. Coburns and I totally agree with you. Maybe they will take a look at the structure of the triple crown races and make some changes in the future. I take nothing away from california chrome. He couldnt benefit off the slow fractions and when he swung 3 wide in the stretch , he couldnt makeup the ground. He is still a true champion!
He has a horse he got for hardly anything and now it worth a reportedly 30 million..Chrome lost ..Get over it..He couldn't even place in the top three..Still a great horse ..
Who's to say that Tonalist
Who's to say that Tonalist wouldn't have won the Derby and Preakness and had the triple crown himself? Coburn might consider that he's lucky Tonalist wasn't in the other 2.
From 1961 until his own
From 1961 until his own record was broken, Roger Maris had to live with an asterisk next to his name because he played in 162 games instead of the 154 of Babe's day.
Changing the rules now would taint the achievement of any future Triple Crown winner. It would make it easier and less meaningful to win.
Initially, I was strongly on the "it's not fair" side, but after reading several more stories and comments by a knowledgeable friend, I realized my position was rather shallow and didn't take into account all the particulars.
There's never been a Triple Crown winner who ran against a field at Belmont that wasn't comprised primarily of fresh horses. Belmont is the toughest of the three races to win because there is a fresh field, the track is longer and it comes with a relatively short rest for any horse that ran the previous two races. That's what makes the Triple Crown so hard to win, and that's a good thing.
Only in our society of "nobody should get their feelings hurt" and "every child deserves a gold star" would we think winning the Triple Crown shouldn't be tough and rare.
The rules have been the rules
The rules have been the rules for YEARS !! If California Chrome had won, we wouldn't even be having this poll. /end rant
I agree with you Howard, I
I agree with you Howard, I still love Steve Coburns passion for his horse and the whole story behind it .And the look on his wife's face after his rant was priceless. lol
Steve Coburns rant shows that
Steve Coburns rant shows that he really is a DAP!
Steve coburns has a valid
Steve coburns has a valid argument. The horses that run in the kentucky derby reached that field of 20 , 19 this year , based on a point system in which they earned by previous races leading up to the derby. The preakness stakes and the belmont stakes do not require that system to be entered into the field. Mr. Coburns point is....you have fresh horses in the field at the belmont , that never earned enough points to race in the kentucky derby . I hear you mr. Coburns and I totally agree with you. Maybe they will take a look at the structure of the triple crown races and make some changes in the future. I take nothing away from california chrome. He couldnt benefit off the slow fractions and when he swung 3 wide in the stretch , he couldnt makeup the ground. He is still a true champion!
He has a horse he got for
He has a horse he got for hardly anything and now it worth a reportedly 30 million..Chrome lost ..Get over it..He couldn't even place in the top three..Still a great horse ..