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humblepie

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Is anyone else watching this? Watched first episode of four though think all available. Hope the next three go a bit more into work at the yard although very good so far.
 
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Elf On A Shelf

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AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
I haven't even heard of it, what is it about?
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It follows Andrew Balding and Oisin Murphy for a few weeks of the flat season in 2021, including Royal Ascot.

From what I have heard, I haven't seen it, Oisin complained a few times about his 3month cocain ban.

What happened after they finished filming is that he got banned for longer due to breaking covid rules, drug misuse and turning up at the races drunk.

If any normal people - horsey or not - looks up Oisin to see what he has done since filming they will be incredibly disillusioned about racing and wonder just what else it doesn't say or mention.

I will try to watch it at some point but its not top of my list to be honest.
 
Caol Ila

Caol Ila

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I saw the first episode last night. Yes, it was entertaining TV. I felt invested in whether or not Andrew's horses would do well at their races. Thought Oisin was a bit of a tw*t who probably got wasted, did some coke, and conveniently forgot about it. My biggest "WTF" moment was after Andrew's horse lost at Keeneland, and he was like, "Oh, well, all the American horses are using Lasix. I guess we should have tried Lasix as well." I mean, yes, all the American horses are probably on Lasix, but that doesn't mean you should! No one should be using Lasix! No one! Instead of any discussion about the ethics of American racing, where drug rules are pretty lax (ish.. Bob Baffert has found out the hard way that they are not as lax as they used to be), and we have more catastrophic breakdowns than European racing, it was "all the Americans are on performance enhancing drugs and our horse wasn't and maybe he should have been." What???

And it isn't like that isn't common knowledge. I know that most US racehorses are on Lasix, and my involvement in American racing consists of watching the Triple Crown races on TV and occasionally reading COTH threads in their racing subforum.
 
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Elf On A Shelf

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Caol Ila said:
I saw the first episode last night. Yes, it was entertaining TV. I felt invested in whether or not Andrew's horses would do well at their races. Thought Oisin was a bit of a tw*t who probably got wasted, did some coke, and conveniently forgot about it. My biggest "WTF" moment was after Andrew's horse lost at Keeneland, and he was like, "Oh, well, all the American horses are using Lasix. I guess we should have tried Lasix as well." I mean, yes, all the American horses are probably on Lasix, but that doesn't mean you should! No one should be using Lasix! No one! Instead of any discussion about the ethics of American racing, where drug rules are pretty lax (ish.. Bob Baffert has found out the hard way that they are not as lax as they used to be), and we have more catastrophic breakdowns than European racing, it was "all the Americans are on performance enhancing drugs and our horse wasn't and maybe he should have been." What???

And it isn't like that isn't common knowledge. I know that most US racehorses are on Lasix, and my involvement in American racing consists of watching the Triple Crown races on TV and occasionally reading COTH threads in their racing subforum.
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Lasix isn't actually the worst race day drug they use either. It is legal to use over here in training and it has a 3 day withdrawal. It is an anti-bleeding drug but it is a diuretic so a lot of trainers use it mostly so their horses pees a lot just before the race so the horse is physically lighter come race time.

I do not agree with raceday drugs, or training on any drugs (beyond basic antibiotics which you can race on over here and Gastroguard which has a 3 day withdrawal).

I was shocked when the PM came back from Bafferts and said nothing in its system contributed to its death. I suspect there is a bit of a cover up going on there.
 
Caol Ila

Caol Ila

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Elf On A Shelf said:
Lasix isn't actually the worst race day drug they use either. It is legal to use over here in training and it has a 3 day withdrawal. It is an anti-bleeding drug but it is a diuretic so a lot of trainers use it mostly so their horses pees a lot just before the race so the horse is physically lighter come race time.

I do not agree with raceday drugs, or training on any drugs (beyond basic antibiotics which you can race on over here and Gastroguard which has a 3 day withdrawal).

I was shocked when the PM came back from Bafferts and said nothing in its system contributed to its death. I suspect there is a bit of a cover up going on there.
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A bit!! That said, he's now banned from all New York tracks, Churchill Downs, maybe Keeneland (not sure on that one), so it's nice to see a few racing organizations taking this sh1t seriously.

To jump back to the show, I felt like the narrative surrounding the whole Breeders' Cup thing was a bit off for that colt. The tracks are different, the weather is different (Kentucky is hot and humid!!!), the other horses in the race - who are used to those things - haven't sat on a plane for seven hours, and the US breeds some fast horses who are trained for those tight ovals. I know how much that Transatlantic trip sucks, but I don't know how often horses race abroad. It seemed like a big ask for a three-year old to travel to the States and then beat the locals, Lasix or not. The whole thing came across like an ego trip for the owner. At one point, Andrew was encouraging him to run the horse at Ascot instead, in that gently polite British way, but the owner was set on Kentucky.
 
paddi22

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It was an interesting show, loved the passion of the grooms but very upsetting to look at the horses in the background and see all the vices they exhibited. Oisin came across as quite petulant as well, seemed to think he was hard done by by the world and didn’t seem to accept any responsibility for any of his behaviour
 
Caol Ila

Caol Ila

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I got sucked in and enjoyed the insight into racing, albeit it wasn't a very critical one. Agree with paddi22 about the stable vices, and the elephant in the room for me was the ethics of two-year old racing and starting race training as yearlings.
 
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