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posted by takyon on Sunday June 07 2015, @09:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the trot-like-an-egyptian dept.

There are some good reasons it's been 37 years since the last triple-crown winner as Lexi Pandell wrote on June 3 that post-race recovery is no joke for a thousand-pound animal that can run more than 40 miles per hour. There are two weeks between the Derby and the Preakness, and three weeks between the Preakness and the Belmont. That tight schedule—and the super-specific needs of racehorses—means horses competing in the grueling back-to-back-to-back Triple Crown races have a big disadvantage against fresh horses. First, as a horse races, its muscles produce lactic acid. In humans, glycogen recoup takes about 24 hours. But horses take several days to process lactic acid and restore glycogen reserves. Trainers make sure their charges drink plenty of water and sometimes even use intravenous fluids to aid that repair process. Secondly, in addition to being the last race of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes is also the longest. That's no easy feat, even for a racehorse. When a horse runs a tough race (or has a new workout at a longer distance), its muscles break down. Then, during rest, they reknit and adapt. A horse that has skipped the Preakness, however, has the luxury of time. Mubtaahij, who some picked to win the Belmont, had plenty of rest so he could be pushed for hard workouts two weeks prior to the Belmont.

Finally, at different points in its stride, a galloping horse puts all its weight on a single leg. That limb bears three times more weight than usual when galloping on a straightaway and, thanks to centrifugal force, a load five to 10 times greater on turns. This translates to skeletal microdamage. Race a horse during that critical period and you increase the risk of serious injuries mid-race. Two weeks [seven years] ago, vets were forced to euthanize the promising gray thoroughbred filly, Eight Belles, when she collapsed on the track after completing the race at Churchill Downs, suffering from two shattered ankles in her front legs. A fresh horse won't face any of those problems. Even a horse that ran in the Derby but skipped the Preakness will have five weeks to rest, and plenty of time for normal skeletal damage to repair, before the Belmont. "So, American Pharoah [sic], it'd be awesome if you win the Triple Crown, but you probably won't," concluded Pandell. "It's not your fault. It's science and those pesky fresh horses." Science was wrong.

[Ed note: The proper spelling of the title for an ancient Egyptian king is "Pharaoh." This ABC News story American Pharoah Rides Misspelled Name to Brink of History notes the registered name for the horse is "American Pharoah" and provides some background on how that came to be.]


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  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2015, @09:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2015, @09:30PM (#193385)

    ▬▬▬.◙.▬▬▬
    ═▂▄▄▓▄▄▂
    ◢◤ █▀▀████▄▄▄▄◢◤
    █▄ █ーJ ███▀▀▀▀▀▀▀╬ LINUX MADE ME SO RICH
    ◥█████◤ /▌
    ══╩══╩══▬▬▬.◙.▬▬▬ I HAVE A MERCEDES CHOPPER
    ON THE HELIPAD OF MY ROOF!!!

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   -1  
       Offtopic=2, Troll=1, Funny=1, Underrated=1, Total=5
    Extra 'Offtopic' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   -1  
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Sunday June 07 2015, @09:37PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Sunday June 07 2015, @09:37PM (#193389) Journal

    ▬▬▬.◙.▬▬▬
    ═▂▄▄▓▄▄▂
    ◢◤ █▀▀████▄▄▄▄◢◤
    █▄ █ーJ ███▀▀▀▀▀▀▀╬ LINUX MADE ME SO RICH
    ◥█████◤ /▌
    ══╩══╩══▬▬▬.◙.▬▬▬ I HAVE A MERCEDES CHOPPER
    ON THE HELIPAD OF MY ROOF!!!

    Larry, is that you?

    Back on topic, I wonder if genetic testing will be done on the horse to see if it handles lactic acid more efficiently, or perhaps does not make it at normal quantities?

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday June 07 2015, @10:16PM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Sunday June 07 2015, @10:16PM (#193403) Homepage

    I HAVE A MERCEDES CHOPPER ON THE HELIPAD OF MY ROOF!!!

    You're lucky. I have to leave mine tied to a lamp post with the engine running.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2015, @10:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2015, @10:17PM (#193404)

      Who is a Roko's Basilisk?

      • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday June 08 2015, @04:28AM

        by mhajicek (51) on Monday June 08 2015, @04:28AM (#193507)

        Google it. Srsly. Interesting read.

        --
        The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday June 08 2015, @08:55AM

        by wonkey_monkey (279) on Monday June 08 2015, @08:55AM (#193577) Homepage

        Roko's basilisk is a thought experiment that assumes that an otherwise benevolent future artificial intelligence (AI) would torture the simulated selves of the people who did not help bring about the AI's existence. It would do so to blackmail the people who think about this idea now into helping the AI to come into being, for the purpose of ending all other causes of death and suffering (which most of LessWrong expects a recursively self-improved AI to be capable of).

        It's a load of bollocks though - you can't blackmail someone from the future, and there'd be no reason to torture anyone because it won't have any effect on the past. The only reason for this AI to torture simulated copies of anyone who didn't help create it would be out of malice.

        The concept was proposed in 2010 by contributor Roko in a discussion on LessWrong. Yudkowsky deleted the posts regarding it and banned further discussion of Roko's basilisk on LessWrong after it had apparently caused several contributors who took it seriously considerable anguish.

        Sounds to me like some people will go to any lengths - even allowing themselves to suffer supposedly debilitating existential anguish - for the sake of looking clever.

        --
        systemd is Roko's Basilisk