Wednesday, May 4, 2011

TB W/O The OT


We all know I'm obsessed with OTTBs; and while Salem is 100% Thoroughbred, he is 0% off-track. So, I would like to clear something up. Several months ago, a friend told me, "Don't say anything, but apparently Salem really was at the track and raced, like, 40-some times." This is completely false. But I decided to do a little sleuthing and see if I could figure out how someone could come to such a conclusion.

Of course, the place to look up TB info is equibase.com, so I headed over to the site and typed "Wingman" (Salem's previous name) into the search box. This is one of the horses who popped up in the results; he's a bay Thoroughbred gelding named Wing Man who is only 2 years older than Salem and indeed has 46 starts under his belt...er, girth. I can certainly see how a person not totally familiar with Thoroughbreds could come to the conclusion that this horse is Salem.

However, here's how I know that it absolutely 100% without a doubt is not Salem: Salem doesn't have a tattoo! And every Thoroughbred who even sets a hoof onto the track is tattooed. They simply can.not.race without getting inked. In fact, my old horse Mac spent some time being track-trained as a 2-year but didn't start in a single race; but since he was at the track, he was tattooed. Even if you discount the fact that Salem was born in Ocala not New York, or that he was born in 2004 not 2002, the lack of a tattoo is the smoking gun that proves Salem is not the "Wing Man" listed on equibase.com.

The fact that he didn't race doesn't diminish Salem one bit in my eyes; in fact, I'm very glad that his big joints were spared from all the rigors of racing. I'm sure I'll own another OTTB sometime in the future, but for now I'm quite happy with my non-OT TB.

6 comments:

SprinklerBandit said...

My old mare was on the track for years. Sound as could be... I know it completely varies from horse to horse, but some that have withstood racing are virtually unbreakable.

Frizzle said...

SB, certainly some horses can race for years and be sound as a dime, but I think that's the exception not the rule -- and usually those horses have great conformation. Obviously, starting horses so young and subjecting their joints to such stress is not good for them.
I DO still love those OTTBS, though!

Wits End Eventing said...

Wing Man (the one with 46 starts) update: We acquired Wing Man after he retired from the track because of his exceptional eventing pedigree. He has been chilling out learning to not be a race horse and occasionally packs my wife around our trails. We will hopefully start breeding him soon. He has a fabulous temperament and is definitely still sound. Sounds like your Wingman is doing great as well.
Dale

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