Aidan O`Brien and the Mother of all mistakes.?

Question

Why in the name of God did the greatest racehorse trainer in the world allow George Washington to run on what was more like a paddy field than a racetrack on Saturday , a decision that ultimately cost George his life ?

Answer 1

Who are we to say that it was Aidan's decision?  Who knows what goes on behind closed doors, he may well have wanted to pull the horse out but it is possible that Coolmore over-ruled him.  We will never know.

There is no point throwing blame around over this, mistakes are made, and from time to time they can be fatal.  We are all human after all.  You cannot blame the track per se as no other horses suffered an injury on the day.

Answer 2

money

Answer 3

dunno

Answer 4

never judge a man till you have walked a mile in his shoes- the smallest book in the world is -Mistakes i have made.by a.o,brien.he knows the score and he works for very powerful and strong minded folk.training decisions are not always simple,or black and white and ultimately the racehorse is there to race,unfortunately in this instance it cost a life but who is to say it was the track,could have been a previous injury,stress fracture etc coming to the front.connections will be grieving i am sure of that so lets move on and enjoy the racing ahead.

Answer 5

Why in the name of GOD will you people not let this issue go??? It was an accident, a freak accident at that. Besides it's not always soley up to the trianer, the owners have  a say in where and when the horse races as well. The colt was training brillantly over all different surfaces, he wa sentered b/c they had a belief he could possibly win.  Like I said it was a FREAK ACCIDENT and as with ANYTHING in life it happens. I'm so tired of seeing this posted all over the forums there is nothing more to be done, the horse is now dead, the trianers , owners and jock are all grieving, let the horse rest. Let the connections to George grieve and get on with life, I know the possibility of them seeing all this BS posted on these bulliteins is slim but can you imagine how much it probably hurts them to see people call them stupid or careless and all the other things being written about them? LET IT ALONE IT IS PAST CAN"T CHANGE IT NOW

~Horsemanspal~ I couldn't have put it better myself, well said and I totally agree. I see we both got thumbs down, probably from the poster (oh shucks lol) anyway you're right the connections are grieving and we need to move on and let them and continue to enjoy such a wonderful sport, they will too someday just not right this second. so anyway horseman thumbs up to you!!!!

Answer 6

your right aidan o'brian is an idiot for letting george washington run on that sluch the decision has ultimetly cost george washington his career what a waste

Answer 7

Probably because over 100 other horses had run on the 'paddy field' that day without any incident.  George Washington was a great horse and deserved a chance to run against other great horses.  There is always risk inherent in racing - it's the nature of the beast.  Aidan did not knowingly send George out to his death, but certainly it is in the back of the minds of everyone connected to racing that when a horse steps out onto the track it might not come back.  Unfortunately it went that way for George on Saturday, but you can just as easily question why Steve Assmussen, Larry Jones, Craig Dollase, Carl Nafzger, John Sherriffs, Todd Pletcher and d**k Dutrow allowed their runners to compete as well.

Answer 8

The mistake is not the track condition--there's no evidence that the muddy track caused his injury, in fact when you consider that none of the other horses that ran on that track suffered such an injury the evidence suggests that the track was quite safe to run on--I think it was a mistake for O'Brien to run him on dirt again at all.  He failed last year on dirt, there was no reason to think he would take to the surface again.  He should've been entered in one of the turf races if anything.  I think the breakdown was just one of those things that can always happen--I've seen it on fast dirt, slop, turf, even polytrack.

Answer 9

I have to agree with newmarketsalsa,but I'm always a bit baffled why great European turf horses are entered in races on the dirt, perhaps it's the massive egos of their owners.

Answer 10

I knew George Washington ran on the Turf and was concerned he was running on a surface maybe not to his liking.  As far as the Trainer they do make a lot of the decisions but also they have to answer to there bosses and even though the owners have many many millions sometimes it is a ego thing, or sometimes it is a mistake in a judgement call, unfortunately it was the horse that paid the expensive price of his life.  I have a ex-race horse myself,  that is related to George Washington, and in fact raced in Ireland in his 2 and 3 year old career, and so this is very close to my broken heart over another great horse that we have lost, they run there hearts out and put there lives on the line for our pleasure, may he now rest in peace and run with the fallen greats before him. Such a sad day, with tears of grief for a wonderful horse.