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How Thoroughbred Horses Work · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the Reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: It's ready, are you hey? And welcome to the podcast.
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Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Nice. That's
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Speaker 1: a pretty good horse. Was that a Mayor Philly whole
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Speaker 1: yearling gelding? Cole Stallion? Do you know a lot more
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Speaker 1: about horses? After reading? I do? And I was gonna
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Speaker 1: ask you if we could open up with a little
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Speaker 1: definition definitions with Chuck and Josh. I think we should,
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Speaker 1: But do your do your thing first and then we'll
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Speaker 1: do that. Just sometimes just going to mention Uncle Mo.
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Speaker 1: Al right here, Uncle Mo is the favorite at the
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Speaker 1: upcoming Breeders Cup by the time this comes out, the
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Speaker 1: Breeders couple of Come and Gone, because it's November four
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Speaker 1: and five, which is the weekend it is, isn't it? Um?
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Speaker 1: And Uncle Mo is the favorite for the Breeders Cup,
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Speaker 1: the real one because you know, like for something like
1:08
Speaker 1: a Breeders Cup, and it's four or five, you know,
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Speaker 1: the fourth and fifth, So two days, um, they're gonna
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Speaker 1: have like fifty races because on a race day there's
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Speaker 1: like usually like ten to thirteen, so they probably have.
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Speaker 1: And the big one is the last one in this case,
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Speaker 1: and the Breeders Cup is gonna be at Churchill Churchill
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Speaker 1: Downs in Kentucky where they hold a Kentucky Derby and
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Speaker 1: Uncle Mos favorite. He's five to choice by oddsmaker Mike Battellia,
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Speaker 1: who had not heard of until I read this article
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Speaker 1: about Uncle Mo. But he scratched. I was gonna see
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Speaker 1: him at the Kentucky Derby and he scratched with a
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Speaker 1: liver problem, so he didn't make it to post. And
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Speaker 1: I can't remember. I think Animal Kingdom ended up winning.
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Speaker 1: But I went to the Kentucky Derby, you mean I did,
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Speaker 1: And then we went to the Preakness, and after that
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Speaker 1: I was like, I have to do or about this.
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Speaker 1: So I came back and started researching and wrote this
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Speaker 1: article how Thoroughbreds work. And then and now the next
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Speaker 1: horse race you go to, you will be the most
2:08
Speaker 1: obnoxious person there. No, I'll keep my mouth. I bet
2:11
Speaker 1: a lot of people know a lot, and I bet
2:14
Speaker 1: a lot of people know nothing. Yeah well, were at
2:17
Speaker 1: the big ones like that? Yeah you well, yeah you you.
2:20
Speaker 1: I would say most of the people there know nothing
2:23
Speaker 1: at the big ones because it's just filled with tourists,
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Speaker 1: and for some people it's like, hey, it's I come
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Speaker 1: here every day. It's just another race day. Get out
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Speaker 1: of here. Right. But ultimately, and because of Perry Muto
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Speaker 1: mew too well, betting interesting, it's what it's Perry Perry mutel,
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Speaker 1: that's what it is. But it's a French word. Um.
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Speaker 1: Your odds go up and down depending on how many
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Speaker 1: other people are betting on a horse or betting against
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Speaker 1: it or whatever. So I imagine if you are like
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Speaker 1: just one of those people where the Kentucky Derby is
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Speaker 1: just another race day for you, you hate that day,
3:00
Speaker 1: the first Saturday in May, you probably skip it. Maybe
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Speaker 1: you got you got a line, well yeah, true, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: this mutter is a mutter. Yeah. So let's let's do
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Speaker 1: your definition, chuck, all right. A cult is a male
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Speaker 1: under five years old. Philly is a female under five
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Speaker 1: years old, right, but from two age two to age five,
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Speaker 1: the yearling is either one or two years old. Okay.
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Speaker 1: A foal is newborn yeah, correct, and it's also over
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Speaker 1: being folds being born right. A sire is the father,
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Speaker 1: which is a stallion yep. Stallion is an adult male
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Speaker 1: horse over five years old, but also a stud if
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Speaker 1: he's doing that for money or pere or is he
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Speaker 1: a stud no matter what, he's a stud, no matter what.
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Speaker 1: That's what I like to think. And then the damn
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Speaker 1: the d A m is the female, which is a mayor, right,
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Speaker 1: and she is a breeder over five and she produces
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Speaker 1: a If she produces a female, it's a broodmare, or
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Speaker 1: she a brood mayor she's a brood mare. So a
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Speaker 1: brood mare and a stud are one and the same,
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Speaker 1: but different breeds, different genders, genders, yes, yes, but they
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Speaker 1: are like it's that's all the act of doing it.
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Speaker 1: After that, when reproduction takes over, they become a sire
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Speaker 1: in a damn, okay, in relation to the full and
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Speaker 1: a pony is just a small horse which has very
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Speaker 1: disappointing Yeah, well unless you meet one, then you're like,
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Speaker 1: I'm not at all disappointed by this Shetland pony. Shetland
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Speaker 1: ponies are awesome, all right, So that'll that'll help you
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Speaker 1: out here going through this excellent article. I might add,
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Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, it's very good. Well, I really
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Speaker 1: like thoroughbred horses are really interesting. They're probably new and
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Speaker 1: it's one of those that if you don't know anything
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Speaker 1: about something. You can sit down in thirty minutes and
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Speaker 1: read this and know a lot about something you never
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Speaker 1: kne anything about, which is our goal. Yeah, alright, so
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Speaker 1: let's go. Well, Um, like I said, though, breds are
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Speaker 1: pretty new. They just came about within the last like
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Speaker 1: three hundred or so years, Like they're an entirely new breed.
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Speaker 1: You know that. Well, you want to talk about the
5:14
Speaker 1: beginning of the uh yeah, the history of Thoroughbreds by
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Speaker 1: Josh Clark. Every thoroughbred alive comes from one of three bloodlines,
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Speaker 1: which is really remarkable. Um. The well, let's here, you
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Speaker 1: give me a little background, then we'll talk about the
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Speaker 1: horses themselves. So, uh, the this breed has three foundation
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Speaker 1: sires is what they're called. And they're so they're three
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Speaker 1: stallions that all belong to the Oriental group, and the
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Speaker 1: Oriental group are Turks, Barbs and Arabians. Very fast, like
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Speaker 1: these are the ones that you see in Lawrence of
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Speaker 1: Arabia haulling through the desert. Exactly. Very muscular and fast, yeah, exactly, Um,
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Speaker 1: and fairly light to write, like, yeah, I used to
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Speaker 1: Like I was like, how do you want me to
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Speaker 1: finish that? Yes, we like them. Um. The Arabians for
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Speaker 1: at least a couple of thousand years have been prized
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Speaker 1: for their quickness and their courage. They're very courageous horses,
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Speaker 1: so they war horses. They serve as really good war horses. Yeah. Um.
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Speaker 1: And because they were quick and because Bedouins Shake used
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Speaker 1: to like to make money however however he could, including wagers,
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Speaker 1: they would be raced in match racism, match races just
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Speaker 1: one horse against one horse. Um and uh. And about
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Speaker 1: the seventeenth eighteenth century, the late seventeenth early eighteenth century,
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Speaker 1: three sires arrived in England and those became the foundation
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Speaker 1: sires for the thoroughbread Beat breed. Each one has a
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Speaker 1: really cool story. If you ask me, I agree. In
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Speaker 1: Captain Robert by Bayerley captured a Turk, very fine looking
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Speaker 1: horse from the Turkoman horse in the Middle East, right,
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Speaker 1: and the that's part of the Oriental group, the Turk,
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Speaker 1: the Turkoman. That's it's an Oriental horse. Yeah, these are
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Speaker 1: all Oriental horses, right. And they he captured this in
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Speaker 1: a in a battle in Hungary and it was like,
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Speaker 1: you know what, this horse is really fast and it's
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Speaker 1: really brave. I'm taking it back to England, and he did,
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Speaker 1: and UH. That was number one. Number two was the
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Speaker 1: Byerly Turk UH. And this was a stolen barb, another
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Speaker 1: Oriental obviously called the Darley Barb or the Darly Arabian UH,
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Speaker 1: purchased by Thomas Darley and he was a diplomat to
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Speaker 1: Syria and he said, Hey, I love that four year
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Speaker 1: old colt Mr Bedouin Shake, and so I'd like to
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Speaker 1: purchase from you. And then the shake renigged and he said, well,
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna go steal it from you then if you're
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Speaker 1: not gonna give me the horse. And in in Darley's
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Speaker 1: um defense, I believe he had paid for it already,
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Speaker 1: so just outright theft he was. He was claiming the
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Speaker 1: horse he he purchased. He paid somebody to go steal it,
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Speaker 1: and they smuggled it out through Turkey back to England,
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Speaker 1: and that became the Direly Barb. So now the Diarly
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Speaker 1: Barb is there. And then the third one was a
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Speaker 1: little less interesting, but sort of interesting in an underdog
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Speaker 1: sort of way and a Dickenzie sort of way exactly
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Speaker 1: the Go Dolphin Arabian from Yemen and UH was given
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Speaker 1: to the King of France along with three other horses
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Speaker 1: and seventeen twenty four. I'm sorry he was born in
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Speaker 1: seventeen and being the King of France, he said, I
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Speaker 1: shall set them free, and set these horses free. It
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Speaker 1: ends up being a cart horse in Paris, which is
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Speaker 1: kind of cool when you think about it, that this
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Speaker 1: was like one of the three sires and uh eventually
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Speaker 1: was was bought and sold and bought and sold until
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Speaker 1: it was finally purchased by the second Earl of Godolphin
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Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty three. And I guess that must have
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Speaker 1: been a heck of a horse by that time. Yes,
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Speaker 1: it had seen the ups in the down. And so
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Speaker 1: the these three horses were bred with English mayors um
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Speaker 1: and the the I guess the English horse that they
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Speaker 1: were bred with was a lot bigger, a lot stronger,
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Speaker 1: but a lot slower. And so you took these oriental
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Speaker 1: group horses and these English horses, uh, English draft horses
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Speaker 1: maybe even, and what you had was a very strong,
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Speaker 1: muscular but extremely quick horse, which was the Thoroughbred breed,
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Speaker 1: don't that And so it's the three hundred year old
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Speaker 1: breed of animal, which is really cool, and that that
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Speaker 1: kind of um. It enlightens us to a characteristic of
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Speaker 1: the breed that from the very beginning, it's it's interactive
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Speaker 1: with humans, like it owes its origin to human interaction.
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Speaker 1: What you get with the thoroughbred, Josh, if you want
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Speaker 1: to throw down a couple of hundred bucks on one,
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Speaker 1: can you get a third bread for two hundred bucks? Can?
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Speaker 1: You could? But you'd have to stand outside of the
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Speaker 1: slaughterhouse and just offer. Okay, spoiler alert, you're gonna get
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Speaker 1: a horse that is weighs about a thousand pounds, very
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Speaker 1: light and fast light. Bones will be sixteen hands, which
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Speaker 1: is uh, a hand is four inches what you just said,
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Speaker 1: So that's sixty four inches about years old, six inches
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Speaker 1: sixty four sixty four inches. They'll live to be about
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Speaker 1: twenty five. They can take about a hundred and fifty
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Speaker 1: strides per minute and race up to an over forty. Yeah,
10:36
Speaker 1: that's a cooking horse. And we should say that a
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Speaker 1: horse is measured from the ground to its withers, which
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Speaker 1: is a ridge right behind the shoulders, smithers withers. And
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Speaker 1: you said that they can run forty miles an hour.
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Speaker 1: You know why they can run forty miles an hour?
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Speaker 1: Because of its stride length. Let's talk about his stride length.
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Speaker 1: It's pretty remarkable. Uh. The average stride length of a
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Speaker 1: thoroughbred horse is twenty ft. Okay, that's long. So you
11:04
Speaker 1: say you're subar U is fifteen ft long super outback.
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Speaker 1: So a stride length is the distance between let's say, um,
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Speaker 1: the moment the right hoof, right front hoof, any hoof.
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Speaker 1: But let's say the right front hoof touches the ground
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Speaker 1: to the to the next point where that same hoof,
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Speaker 1: that say, the right hoof touches the ground again. So
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Speaker 1: on a thirdbred and average thoroughbred horse, it's twenty ft.
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Speaker 1: That's very long, longer than a Subaru wagon. Um. And
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Speaker 1: then some other horses have had even longer stride lengths
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Speaker 1: like Man of War who raced and I think, um,
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Speaker 1: he had a stride length of twenty eight ft when
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Speaker 1: he was eight and a half meters. That's that's really
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Speaker 1: really long. Um. And he was taller too, I guess, huh,
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Speaker 1: he was a very tall horse. And also, so you've
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Speaker 1: got a stride length of twenty ft right. Um. They
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Speaker 1: can run up to a hundred and fifty strides a minute,
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Speaker 1: which means they can go up to forty. But they
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Speaker 1: can do this for like over a mile, which is
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Speaker 1: amazing when the reason that they can do this for
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Speaker 1: over a mile is because they're freaks of nature. As
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Speaker 1: far as breeds go, breeds of animal go, right they are.
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Speaker 1: They have very special internal organs, specifically a very large
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Speaker 1: heart and a very efficient spleen. So while this heart
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Speaker 1: is able to pump out seventy i'm sorry, circulate seventy
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Speaker 1: five gallons of blood a minute when running, that's a
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Speaker 1: lot of blood. The spleen all all of a sudden says,
12:38
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna kick it into turbo and
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna, you know, get a bunch of oxygen rich
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Speaker 1: blood cells and shoot them all over the blood stream.
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Speaker 1: And in the end it's going to increase the total
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Speaker 1: red blood cell count thirty five to six total blood volume.
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Speaker 1: So the red blood cell count or percentage is normally
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Speaker 1: thirty five while it's running, goes up to sixty. So
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Speaker 1: it's just delivering oxygen to every part of the running machine.
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Speaker 1: And the third bread has a couple of other unique
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Speaker 1: characteristics as far as it's run goes. All horses can
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Speaker 1: only breathe through their nose. Did you know that? Okay,
13:14
Speaker 1: I did not until I wrote this article. Um. And
13:17
Speaker 1: then they breathe in while their legs are extending, and
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Speaker 1: then they exhale well when the legs come together on
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Speaker 1: the ground, so it acts like a bellows. So they're
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Speaker 1: breathing in tons of oxygen very efficiently. And then its
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Speaker 1: legs do something pretty spectacular. Well, its neck does first. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: the neck moves in unison with the front legs, which
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Speaker 1: is gonna just give you more propulsion. You need to
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Speaker 1: explain the rear hind legs. Okay, So Chuck and I
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Speaker 1: had a little in atypical discussion because we normally don't
13:47
Speaker 1: discuss things beforehand. But um, that the the back legs
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Speaker 1: of a thoroughbred create a spring like motion. They basically
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Speaker 1: pump up and down right, which gives the horse a
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Speaker 1: lot of rust. It produces a lot of gs. Um.
14:04
Speaker 1: Chuck showed me a video, the very same video I
14:06
Speaker 1: looked at to make sure that I knew what I
14:08
Speaker 1: was talking about when I read that, and then you
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Speaker 1: know wrote it. Um that it's not the legs necessarily
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Speaker 1: just staying in like a stiff up and down motion.
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Speaker 1: It's the the overall motion that is being created by
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Speaker 1: the legs, the spring like back legs, springing, springing. What
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Speaker 1: I noted about behind legs is that they stay almost
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Speaker 1: completely straight, so it's just like buying, buying, buying, springing,
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Speaker 1: springing down, springing down. However, you look at the back
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Speaker 1: legs create like a spring like motion very much that
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Speaker 1: propels the horse forward. So that's why thorerbreads are so
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Speaker 1: prized for racing. That's right, because they take all the
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Speaker 1: speed and the agility of the Arabian and the strength
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Speaker 1: and endurance of the English mayors that they were bred with,
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Speaker 1: and you've got the Thoroughbreds had a very special horse.
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Speaker 1: Uh Josh. It wasn't just those three, as you point out,
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Speaker 1: that created the whole bloodline. There was a lot of
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Speaker 1: hanky panky going on with Oriental group horses that were
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Speaker 1: brought over during wartime from the Middle East, and they
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Speaker 1: really helped the bloodline out obviously, but a lot of
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Speaker 1: them were lost to history because maybe they had only
15:29
Speaker 1: female daughters, and that means that's the end of you,
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Speaker 1: or at least your bloodline, or maybe you got it
15:36
Speaker 1: on with a different breed and that means you're a dirty,
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Speaker 1: dirty horse now, and you can't be counted as a
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Speaker 1: Thoroughbred any longer. You could be, but you're going to
15:45
Speaker 1: be even even if they say all right, fine, I'll
15:48
Speaker 1: go back to the Thoroughbred, They're like, Nope, you did
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Speaker 1: it with that other kind of horse, so you're done. No,
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Speaker 1: I don't think so, oh what, No, it's just your offspring. Okay.
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Speaker 1: So like if if the horse never made it with
16:04
Speaker 1: anything but non thoroughbreds, then it's bloodlines lost. I thought
16:08
Speaker 1: you were saying that if out, um, well that's good
16:13
Speaker 1: to know because I thought that was a little harsh. Yeah. No,
16:15
Speaker 1: it's not like that. But all of that is based
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Speaker 1: on a decision that was made in sevente by a
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Speaker 1: guy named James Weatherbee who created this thing called the
16:23
Speaker 1: General Stud Book, and that is that all thoroughbreds are
16:27
Speaker 1: traced through the sire, so they can be traced back
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Speaker 1: through the to the three and all thoroughbreds alive today
16:33
Speaker 1: can be traced back to those three foundations sires. And
16:36
Speaker 1: this General Stud Book is a closed registry, meaning only
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Speaker 1: Thoroughbred full Thoroughbred horses that are born to full Thoroughbred
16:44
Speaker 1: parents can be included in this General Stud book, that's right,
16:48
Speaker 1: and more than a hundred thousand or fold worldwide every year,
16:51
Speaker 1: and so that's a lot of horses to keep track
16:53
Speaker 1: of and trace their lineage. Although once you have it
16:57
Speaker 1: done the first time, like that General stud Book serves
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Speaker 1: as the mother ship of which all other stud books
17:04
Speaker 1: are based. So you've got the foundation there you do,
17:07
Speaker 1: so it's not like you have to keep tracing back
17:09
Speaker 1: to the original three. No, once you can link it
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Speaker 1: up to say the last one in the in the
17:14
Speaker 1: General stud Book exactly, it's last ancestor then it takes
17:17
Speaker 1: over from there. So thank you. Weather Bees. Well yeah,
17:19
Speaker 1: well they still do that. The weather Bees Limited is
17:22
Speaker 1: still an incorporated company in the UK. I thot they
17:27
Speaker 1: have a nice box there at Churchill Down. Oh yeah
17:29
Speaker 1: they do, or anywhere anywhere, um they so yeah. James
17:33
Speaker 1: Weatherby in se was actually the second weather be his
17:37
Speaker 1: uncle um clem no also James. He was the first
17:43
Speaker 1: secretary of the Jockey Club and uh he was hired
17:46
Speaker 1: to keep track of purses, Chuck, what's a purse? Well,
17:51
Speaker 1: a purse. A purse is the winnings, the the total
17:56
Speaker 1: u amount of money that a horse can win for
18:00
Speaker 1: its owner. I should say, horses traditionally don't get to
18:03
Speaker 1: keep the money themselves. It goes to the owners, who
18:07
Speaker 1: in turn pay the jockeys and all those other people. Um.
18:10
Speaker 1: But the the the first James Weatherby was hired in
18:15
Speaker 1: seventeent um to basically keep the books for the jockey club.
18:22
Speaker 1: So the weather Bees are like a family, a long
18:24
Speaker 1: line of accountants basically. And the reason why the first
18:28
Speaker 1: Jeames Weatherby was hired was because he, um, he was
18:33
Speaker 1: hanging around at a time when they really needed to
18:35
Speaker 1: start keeping track of the incredible sums of money that
18:39
Speaker 1: were being bet on these races. Yeah, what happened was
18:42
Speaker 1: they you know, as soon as two rich people get
18:44
Speaker 1: something fast, they're gonna want to race against each other.
18:47
Speaker 1: And so that's what happened. And they were just like,
18:49
Speaker 1: let me race my horse against yours. And then that
18:51
Speaker 1: became like, well, let's have a few races, and let's
18:54
Speaker 1: add even more horses, and horse racing very organically. Thoroughbred
18:58
Speaker 1: racing was very organically. And like you said, then once
19:02
Speaker 1: things are racing, some dude's gonna want to bet and
19:06
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, it's a huge cottage industry
19:08
Speaker 1: that the weather Bees were put in charge of Yeah, exactly.
19:11
Speaker 1: Back in seventeen seventy. When he was hired, the purses
19:15
Speaker 1: were reaching something like two thousand pounds. There's a lot,
19:19
Speaker 1: a lot. I didn't see a conversion for today's dollars,
19:23
Speaker 1: but it's a lot of pounds. It's a lot. So
19:26
Speaker 1: they hired the weather Bees and um, ultimately James Weatherby
19:30
Speaker 1: the younger created the General Stubb Book, which, like you said,
19:34
Speaker 1: is like the central stud book for all the others.
19:36
Speaker 1: America has its own. Um, the American stud Book goes
19:40
Speaker 1: back to eighteen sixty eight, and U Thoroughbreds in America
19:45
Speaker 1: go back far, far, um earlier than that. Thirty I
19:50
Speaker 1: think was the first one. Yeah, bull Rock, which is
19:53
Speaker 1: a pretty cool name as a heck of stallion. Yeah,
19:55
Speaker 1: Bull bull Rock. So Bull Rock was here, and apparently
19:58
Speaker 1: there was a horse racing on Long Island as far
20:02
Speaker 1: back as the late seventeenth century. Yeah, but thoroughbred's bloodlines
20:08
Speaker 1: are and are kept such such exact records are kept
20:12
Speaker 1: of the bloodlines that they basically said, you guys had
20:15
Speaker 1: a civil war, We're not sure of your records any longer.
20:18
Speaker 1: Start over, So the American stud Book goes back to
20:22
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight, and that's it. It's the as far
20:25
Speaker 1: as anybody's concerned, the beginning of thoroughbred horses in America. Yeah,
20:29
Speaker 1: and then the in nineteen thirteen, the Jockey Club passed
20:32
Speaker 1: the Jersey Act, which basically said a lot of these
20:35
Speaker 1: American horses don't count because unless you're in these other books,
20:39
Speaker 1: then you can prove that. Then uh, then your s
20:42
Speaker 1: o L right, if your parents don't show up in
20:44
Speaker 1: other general stud books that were previously published, then whatever.
20:49
Speaker 1: And since there was a break in the records, a
20:51
Speaker 1: lot of American horses couldn't get in there, it's right
20:53
Speaker 1: until nineteen nine, and they felt bad for them and said,
20:56
Speaker 1: you know what, we're gonna let you in and year
20:59
Speaker 1: now in the study. So if the stud book says
21:02
Speaker 1: who who's in and who's out, and the Jockey Club
21:06
Speaker 1: controls the stud book, that means that the Jockey Club
21:10
Speaker 1: basically defines what a thoroughbred horses. And when I say basically,
21:16
Speaker 1: I mean in every single sense of the word. So color,
21:20
Speaker 1: there's nine colors cover everything, though, don't they like what colors?
21:25
Speaker 1: Are horses that aren't listed? Is what I wondered. Any
21:28
Speaker 1: kind of neon is is left out. They also determine
21:33
Speaker 1: whether the name is appropriate, which, uh, you know, you've
21:37
Speaker 1: seen some pretty silly horse names, but you notice that
21:39
Speaker 1: you've never seen one that was a slur, like a
21:42
Speaker 1: Rachel slur, social slur. Never one that's offensive. Uh, never
21:47
Speaker 1: one that was named after someone famous, unless they said, hey,
21:50
Speaker 1: you should name this after me the w C. Fields.
21:53
Speaker 1: Well know, if you're if they're alive. Still, I thought
21:55
Speaker 1: they had to have consent you of a living famous person.
21:59
Speaker 1: I think you can't get interesting, not without reanimation. Oh,
22:05
Speaker 1: I just thought like the state could give consenters. But
22:08
Speaker 1: I think I think I remember seeing that part of
22:10
Speaker 1: the rules if it's a live person interesting Uh, And
22:14
Speaker 1: it cannot the name cannot consist of entirely of numbers,
22:17
Speaker 1: which makes sense, I guess. But and you can also
22:21
Speaker 1: name like um, you can't name it after another winning
22:24
Speaker 1: horse traditionally, unless it's like a play on it, like
22:29
Speaker 1: seed biscuit was a son of like hard tack, I think,
22:35
Speaker 1: which does that type of bread that sailors eight? But
22:38
Speaker 1: could you name one like tea biscuit? You could, but
22:41
Speaker 1: I'll bet everybody think you're a jeer tea biscuit nine
22:44
Speaker 1: O nine sevent eight nine four. Well, and it says
22:47
Speaker 1: the Jockey club has the final authority, so they might
22:49
Speaker 1: just shut that down on you know, hinkiness alone. Yeah,
22:52
Speaker 1: and they can say you name your horse whatever you want,
22:55
Speaker 1: but it's not coming in the register. And you're like, okay,
22:57
Speaker 1: al right, right, all right, all right, I'll let you.
23:00
Speaker 1: All right, Josh, we're talking about purses and it is
23:03
Speaker 1: big money now in the US alone, in two thousand
23:06
Speaker 1: and ten, the gross purses UH total more than a
23:10
Speaker 1: billion dollars. That was actually a pretty big decline. Well
23:13
Speaker 1: not big, but there was, there was. It was worth
23:15
Speaker 1: more even earlier, like two five was a huge peak
23:20
Speaker 1: for purses in the US for horse racing. Yeah, well
23:23
Speaker 1: that means if there's a lot of money to be
23:24
Speaker 1: one as a horse owner, that means there's a lot
23:26
Speaker 1: of money to be made as a horse owner and
23:30
Speaker 1: paid as a horse owner. It's very expensive. In fact,
23:33
Speaker 1: I looked into this when I remember when I wrote
23:35
Speaker 1: that article on unusual investments for Sunny Paper, one of
23:39
Speaker 1: them was investing in horses and it didn't seem like
23:43
Speaker 1: a very good idea at the time. This is before
23:46
Speaker 1: the horse bubble though, because of how much it costs
23:49
Speaker 1: to maintain a horse, you know, and just like you
23:51
Speaker 1: can buy into it without owning a horse, like almost
23:54
Speaker 1: like stock in these operations. So there I think the
23:58
Speaker 1: problem is then would be like the the chance, the
24:02
Speaker 1: percentage percentage of a chance that you have of that
24:05
Speaker 1: particular horse really bringing home big money. Well, you've got
24:09
Speaker 1: the chances in here. Six of all year lings fold
24:14
Speaker 1: in a given year will be trained to race, so
24:16
Speaker 1: almost all of the our trained to race, almost literally
24:19
Speaker 1: born to race, and only about five percent of those
24:22
Speaker 1: will win any kind of substantial purse. And I think
24:24
Speaker 1: you said, was it like point two percent of that
24:29
Speaker 1: will ever win a Grade one stakes race? And Grade
24:33
Speaker 1: ones are the big ones like the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness.
24:36
Speaker 1: Point two percent. Man, that's very low. It is extremely low, um.
24:41
Speaker 1: And I mean, if you have a horse that wins
24:43
Speaker 1: like a daily race a couple of days a week
24:46
Speaker 1: and it's forty grand and it's just a reliable winning horse,
24:50
Speaker 1: you're still going to make some money off of it.
24:52
Speaker 1: But still the big problem that all thoroughbred horse owners
24:57
Speaker 1: face is you have a very very limited time to
25:00
Speaker 1: raise your horse, like all prime athletes except even Shorter,
25:04
Speaker 1: very much shorter. Cigar Um was a very long lived
25:08
Speaker 1: or had a long racing life. He was he had
25:12
Speaker 1: sixteen consecutive wins. But he raced until he was five.
25:15
Speaker 1: He was five when he raced UM, so he raced
25:19
Speaker 1: even longer than just his fifth birthday. UM. But for
25:22
Speaker 1: the most part, like I mentioned Man of War, he
25:25
Speaker 1: raced like eighteen times I believe, and it was over
25:28
Speaker 1: the course of like nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty. It
25:31
Speaker 1: wasn't like two full years UM. And he is one
25:34
Speaker 1: of the greatest race horses of all time. Well, the window,
25:38
Speaker 1: I mean, just to be at that peak of physical condition.
25:40
Speaker 1: The window is just so small because they're the best
25:43
Speaker 1: of the best. So if you drop off by what
25:46
Speaker 1: are the links called like a head length for long?
25:51
Speaker 1: An eighth of a mile is a for long. If
25:53
Speaker 1: you drop off by just a tiny the tiniest bit,
25:55
Speaker 1: you're done. So that's why I guess most of the
25:59
Speaker 1: Colts and Phillies are two to three, even though all
26:01
Speaker 1: the Triple Crown races are three years old only, right,
26:05
Speaker 1: and fact of the show, they're all born on well
26:09
Speaker 1: they're not all born but they all have the same
26:11
Speaker 1: birthday to help keep track of bloodlines. And what is
26:15
Speaker 1: that just January one? January one, But that means that
26:19
Speaker 1: the horses racing could potentially be three hundred and sixty
26:22
Speaker 1: four days apart from each other in age, but they're
26:25
Speaker 1: all considered one year old. They're all considered one um,
26:28
Speaker 1: which is a problem. If you are a horse, uh
26:31
Speaker 1: that's born on December thirty one, uh, two thousand eleven
26:36
Speaker 1: January onwelve, you're considered one um and if you are
26:41
Speaker 1: going to race, you're gonna have to race horses of
26:44
Speaker 1: your own aid for like the Kentucky Derby's only open
26:47
Speaker 1: to three year olds. So yeah, there's the other horses
26:50
Speaker 1: in your class have the same have a whole year's
26:54
Speaker 1: worth of training ahead of you, and they're gonna dust you,
26:57
Speaker 1: which means that if you are a damn and you're
27:02
Speaker 1: pregnant and you're about to give birth on December thirty one,
27:07
Speaker 1: your owners are probably injecting you with drugs that are
27:10
Speaker 1: going to keep you from going into labor. Yet another
27:13
Speaker 1: example of how humans have like always uh, they play
27:17
Speaker 1: an interventionist role in the thoroughbred breed. And if you
27:21
Speaker 1: are a little baby born fold that's born in let's
27:27
Speaker 1: say June, you're not gonna be very valuable. They want
27:31
Speaker 1: horses that are born probably in the first couple of
27:32
Speaker 1: months of the year, right, usually the first half of
27:35
Speaker 1: the year. Um. And there's I guess here now we
27:40
Speaker 1: kind of reach like the somewhat depressing part, well, the
27:44
Speaker 1: extremely depressing part of thoroughbred racing, and why I don't
27:47
Speaker 1: go to horse or dog races any longer. Well, so
27:49
Speaker 1: we talked about injecting damn with um with drugs to
27:54
Speaker 1: keep her from going into labor um. The If you're
27:59
Speaker 1: a sire, it might sound cool at first, right, but
28:04
Speaker 1: having a lot of sex, I'm sure it adds up
28:06
Speaker 1: if you are, especially if you're a stud. If you're
28:10
Speaker 1: collecting stud fees, um, that means that you're probably owned
28:14
Speaker 1: by a breeding syndicate that just makes their money, like
28:17
Speaker 1: an investment group, um, that makes their money by by
28:22
Speaker 1: hiring you out for stud called covering, that's what it's called.
28:26
Speaker 1: When horses do it, um, And they're going to make
28:29
Speaker 1: you do it very very, very frequently, as many as
28:34
Speaker 1: three females a day for six month stretches for twenty
28:37
Speaker 1: years or more. Yeah, And Uh, if things don't go well,
28:42
Speaker 1: you will be killed. Slaughtered for the most part in
28:46
Speaker 1: Great Britain alone. In two thousand eleven, the U The
28:49
Speaker 1: Observer reported that almost eight thousand horses were slaughtered there
28:53
Speaker 1: in two thousand ten, which was at increase over two
28:57
Speaker 1: thousand nine. And they don't let you slaughter horses in
29:01
Speaker 1: the United States anymore since two thousand seven, so we
29:04
Speaker 1: ship them to Canada to do it right. And then
29:07
Speaker 1: in Canada, about two thirds of all thoroughbred race horses
29:12
Speaker 1: UM are youthanized, slaughtered or abandoned from racing. I'm sorry,
29:16
Speaker 1: not in Canada, but just in the United States, UM,
29:19
Speaker 1: after they retired, After they retire from racing. UM. In Canada,
29:23
Speaker 1: about a hundred and twenty thousand horses, including thoroughbreds, not
29:27
Speaker 1: just for thoroughbreds, were slaughtered in two thousand nine. UM.
29:33
Speaker 1: So that's a big problem. And we actually know where
29:37
Speaker 1: this problem came from. You said it earlier. It's a
29:39
Speaker 1: horse bubble. Yeah, I mean it was literally almost the
29:43
Speaker 1: exact same scenario as the housing bubble, except we didn't
29:46
Speaker 1: go out and kill houses. No. So basically what happened was, UM,
29:50
Speaker 1: there was a lot of money to be made in horses.
29:53
Speaker 1: People started um getting their sires to cover more and
29:56
Speaker 1: more frequently, which means that more and more folds were born,
30:00
Speaker 1: and the the number of foals born in a given
30:02
Speaker 1: years called the full crop um. More and more folds
30:06
Speaker 1: meant the market was saturated, which meant that prices dropped
30:10
Speaker 1: finally normalized, which meant that there was a lot of
30:13
Speaker 1: and I'm making quotes here because I don't actually think this,
30:15
Speaker 1: but surplus folds, which led to a an increase in slaughter, euthanasia,
30:22
Speaker 1: and just general like abandonment of folds that didn't quite
30:25
Speaker 1: meet the requirements. It couldn't be sold very well, which
30:29
Speaker 1: meant the horse bubble burst, which is good in one
30:31
Speaker 1: way because it means that the breed is no longer
30:33
Speaker 1: being rampantly abused as it was a couple of years ago.
30:38
Speaker 1: It also means that if you're an enthusiast or a breeder,
30:42
Speaker 1: that the breed itself is going to get better because
30:45
Speaker 1: apparently rampant reproduction lead to kind of a decrease an
30:48
Speaker 1: emphasis in quantity over quality. That's going to change, um.
30:53
Speaker 1: But the problem is whether or not anybody will learn
30:56
Speaker 1: anything from it. Well, yeah, and the problem too is
30:59
Speaker 1: this breeding, very specific, scientific breeding of this horses. Even
31:04
Speaker 1: when they do it perfectly right, you've got a scenario
31:07
Speaker 1: where you've got a horse with very light bones. Um.
31:11
Speaker 1: But you know this one writer said the heart of
31:13
Speaker 1: a locomotive and Champagne glass ankles. So as we all
31:17
Speaker 1: saw in two thousand six when Barbaro very gruesomely broke
31:22
Speaker 1: its foot. Um, they tried to fix it, but I
31:28
Speaker 1: think that was I don't know, they didn't fix it.
31:31
Speaker 1: Youthanized in two thousand seven, and then eight Bells, Uh,
31:34
Speaker 1: they just youuthanized her right on the track, which was
31:37
Speaker 1: very sad at Churchill Downs in two thousand eight. So
31:42
Speaker 1: Animal eight. If you want to look into organizations like that,
31:44
Speaker 1: they do a good job. They documented seven twenty nine
31:48
Speaker 1: horses that were injured and euthanized and from March two
31:52
Speaker 1: thousand seven to August eleven, and uh, you know, depending
31:56
Speaker 1: on which way you fall on that fence, the information
31:59
Speaker 1: is out there. Yeah, there's also a ton of um
32:02
Speaker 1: thoroughbred and just horse in general. But there's a lot
32:05
Speaker 1: of thoroughbred rescue organizations that UM taken abandoned or retired
32:11
Speaker 1: or whatever. Thoroughbred horses that aren't wanted any longer and
32:14
Speaker 1: care for them one riding around your property exactly real fast,
32:19
Speaker 1: keep it as a as a watch horse. UM. Also,
32:23
Speaker 1: I want to mention something before anybody writes in UM.
32:26
Speaker 1: January one is the universal birthdate for UM. Thoroughbred horses
32:30
Speaker 1: in the Northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere is August one.
32:35
Speaker 1: Thoroughbred horses lovely, lovely, lovely animals. They're beautiful, they are UM.
32:40
Speaker 1: Let's see, there's a pretty cool documentary. UM. It's sad
32:44
Speaker 1: because Barbara is in it. Oh man, it's sad. UM.
32:48
Speaker 1: It's called I think the First Saturday in May. It's
32:51
Speaker 1: a documentary about the Kentucky Derby and specifically the two
32:53
Speaker 1: thousand six Kentucky Derby. UM and all the horses that
32:57
Speaker 1: are starting to make their way toward it's really um.
33:01
Speaker 1: And then, of course you can read my article on thoroughbreds. UH.
33:05
Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about thoroughbreds, can read
33:08
Speaker 1: that article. Type in thoroughbreds t H O R O U,
33:12
Speaker 1: G H B R E B S in the handy
33:14
Speaker 1: search bar how stuffworks dot Com and that will bring
33:17
Speaker 1: up this article. And I said handy searchbar. So it's
33:19
Speaker 1: time for a listener mail. Josh IMNNA call this cool
33:24
Speaker 1: kid from Minnesota. It's from Gauge. He has a cool name.
33:28
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool. Hey, guys, I'm fifteen years old. I
33:31
Speaker 1: am from Moose like Minnesota, where it is winter for
33:33
Speaker 1: about nine months out of the year. Cool play hockey, golf,
33:38
Speaker 1: and I water ski is the water skis in those
33:41
Speaker 1: three months. Um in the tenth grade, I'm on track
33:44
Speaker 1: to be one of the youngest graduates in school history.
33:46
Speaker 1: People are starting to ask me what I want to
33:48
Speaker 1: do when I'm older. I usually say doctor because I
33:51
Speaker 1: find the human body and especially the brain, extremely fascinating.
33:55
Speaker 1: Mostly the same time and the explanation of what I
33:57
Speaker 1: really want to do. Guys. Ever since the first episode, okay,
34:01
Speaker 1: maybe not the first, for a long time, I've wanted
34:04
Speaker 1: to work for how Stuff Works dot com so neurologist
34:08
Speaker 1: or right for how Stuff Works a neurologist. I'm wondering
34:12
Speaker 1: what kind of qualifications I would need and if there's
34:14
Speaker 1: any way to get a leg up on the competition.
34:17
Speaker 1: I'm a major fan. I won't say biggest because you
34:19
Speaker 1: then you wouldn't believe me, but you two have been
34:21
Speaker 1: big role models for me, and I hopefully will continue
34:24
Speaker 1: to look up to you. No pressure, hopefully as long
34:28
Speaker 1: as we're gonna screw it up. So please write back
34:30
Speaker 1: with any advice and good luck to you. I did
34:33
Speaker 1: write Gauge back. Did you tell him that a good
34:36
Speaker 1: way to get a leg up over the competitions for
34:38
Speaker 1: his parents to give us some money? Yeah, and then
34:41
Speaker 1: just to submit your letter and your portfolio and your
34:45
Speaker 1: a little tryout article. It's really easy to get a
34:47
Speaker 1: job here, or it was. Now we're not hiring a
34:50
Speaker 1: lot of full time writers anymore. Unfortument Wow, what can
34:52
Speaker 1: read what your poce? Can we give him? Uh? I
34:56
Speaker 1: think we should make him a blogger for stuff you
34:59
Speaker 1: should know. Oh that's a good idea, huh. In fact,
35:04
Speaker 1: our boss even mentioned I showed him the scene and
35:05
Speaker 1: he was like, yeah, what if we can get just
35:07
Speaker 1: get some work? And I said, sure, you can blog
35:09
Speaker 1: for me? So what did he say? He kind of
35:12
Speaker 1: died there, But it could be it could be resurrected
35:14
Speaker 1: if if Gauge was up for something like that. I
35:17
Speaker 1: feel like you really just applied the pressure. Maybe. So alright, Gauge,
35:21
Speaker 1: let's get this ball rolling. Why don't you write us
35:23
Speaker 1: back after you hear this and take a nice little
35:26
Speaker 1: victory lap around your high school. Um, wearing a parka
35:30
Speaker 1: because it's gonna be cold. Um. And uh, if you
35:35
Speaker 1: think Gauge should blog if we want to hear about it, right,
35:38
Speaker 1: I think you should under the name Charles W. Bryant.
35:41
Speaker 1: If if you want to, if you want to see
35:43
Speaker 1: if you can tell the difference between a Chuck blog
35:45
Speaker 1: and a Gauge blog, let us know, Cage just about it.
35:48
Speaker 1: We'll get this started. We'll figure out what shape is
35:50
Speaker 1: gonna take eventually. But just show us some support so
35:53
Speaker 1: Chuck can get out of blogging. UM, tweet to us
35:57
Speaker 1: maybe pound go Gauge or something like that. Uh. That's
36:00
Speaker 1: s y s K podcasts. Um. You can do something
36:05
Speaker 1: on Facebook at facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know,
36:08
Speaker 1: and you can send us regular old emails at Stuff
36:12
Speaker 1: Podcast at how Stuff works dot com. Be sure to
36:20
Speaker 1: check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
36:23
Speaker 1: Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most
36:25
Speaker 1: promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by
36:32
Speaker 1: the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready are you