Topic: I'll Have Another wins Preakness, goes for Triple Crown!

[Libertas]

This was a good race.  Little colt has a heck of a good kick and I thought we wasn't going to get there in time but ends up beating Bodemeister by a neck.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/47489251/ns/horse_racing/

He's a strong little fella...I'd like to see him get the Triple Crown, but the Belmont is a race of attrition...the mile and a half can really test a critters endurance...how much kick will be there at the end...will it be enough...?

Should be a heck of a race though!

[Glock32]

I was reading an interesting article about Secretariat the other day. It had been noted that most of his male offspring had been rather lackluster, but many of his female offspring had become very successful racehorses and possessed many of his winning traits. They speculated that he possessed a gene, found only on the X chromosome, that causes the heart to be much larger than normal. That large, powerful heart would explain why he had such amazing endurance, and it would also explain why his female offspring were better performers, because he could only pass the gene along via the X chromosome.

At his death, they examined his heart and found it weighed over 20 pounds. That's more than twice the size of a normal horse's heart. These racehorses are about as fine tuned a living thing can be.

[charlesoakwood]

Yes, and even though it was huge it had no malformation that an "enlarged" heart has.
My wife and I had occasion to visit the horse farm, I cannot remember the name, that owned him. One of the stable managers gave us a tour of the breeding facilities and upon learning of her appreciation of Secretariat we were ushered to his stable where
she was allowed to pet him.  Anyway, I had always likened thoroughbreds physique to that of a basketball play, lean; forget that, he was huge and muscled, make that analogy to a football player.  Oh, and they teach them one thing and one thing only
- to run.  They have no manners. 

[Libertas]

Horses in general and thoroughbreads in particular are engineered to be efficient and powerful running machines...the heart, lungs, skeletal structure, muscles and tendons are all designed to aid the animal in its primary function.  Secretariat was a freak of nature...Big Red was one of a kind and likely never will we see another like it in our lifetime.  I don't know what this little colt I'll Have Another has going on, but he's a finisher so far, and that unremarkable lineage isn't holding him back any.