TJ wrote:Think about it and you can go back pretty far and find the same business sense applied. How about the other red horse, Man O War...he raced at two and three......his son, War Admiral raced as a 2 and 3YO. Northern Dancer as well.....then off to the breeding shed where they belonged. Those that stayed longer had something to prove for one reason or another...for example Seabiscuit. Others like Kelso, Forego and John Henry had no choice:>) TJ
Not the same picture, though. Man o' War was retired not because Sam Riddle could make a huge amount of money with him in the breeding shed -- he stood him as a private stallion throughout his career, allowing only a handful of outside mares each season -- but because Riddle feared the colt would be seriously injured under the weights he would be asked to carry at 4. He had already carried 138 in the Potomac Handicap, conceding up to 33-1/2 pounds to his rivals (still the highest weight ever successfully carried by a 3yo in a route race in the U.S.) and had suffered a tendon injury in the course of the running. While it responded to treatment, the affected leg showed inflammation again following Man o' War's victory over Sir Barton in the Kenilworth Gold Cup, so managing the injury would have become a constant issue if Man o' War had continued racing. When he made the decision to retire Man o' War, Riddle had already been told by New York's handicapper Walter Vosburgh that, should Big Red win his first start at 4, Vosburgh would assign him the highest weight he had ever loaded on a horse for his next start. That plus the tendon injury pretty much made up Riddle's mind, though he did toy with the idea of sending the horse to England for the Ascot Gold Cup.
War Admiral raced at 4, quite successfully -- he actually had a better overall record in 1938 than did Seabiscuit, winning 9 of 11 starts against 6 of 11 for Seabiscuit, but lost the year-end championship to that rival on the basis of his defeat in their match race. He was slated to keep running at 5 but was retired in June of 1939 due to an ankle injury after winning his only race of the year.
Northern Dancer was also retired when he was due to injury, having damaged a tendon in his left foreleg while in training for the American Derby. His regular jockey, Bill Hartack, hinted that he may actually have suffered an initial strain on the tendon while racing in the Belmont Stakes two months earlier. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I don't believe the Dancer was syndicated until after his retirement.
I don't doubt some horses were retired earlier than they might otherwise have been due to business considerations regarding breeding even prior to World War II, but the monetary pressure and incentives to retire early were not nearly so intense prior to the 1970s, when high-profile stallion syndications became widespread, and the bloodstock boom of the 1980s which made success in the sale ring much more critical to a stallion's profitability.
