Slashdot Mirror
American Pharoah Overcomes Biology To Win Triple Crown
HughPickens.com writes: There are good reasons it's been 37 years since the last triple-crown winner. As Lexi Pandell writes, 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. 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 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, 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.
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 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, 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.
website am I on?
Holy shit no. Odds heavily against you isn't zero odds especially when you have previous proof they can be beat.
If I put a red ball in one of one hundred thousand cups, your odds are still low even if you pick the right cup. Your odds didn't change.
You're about 6 hours short on this breaking prediction. Specially since other sites ran it 4 days ago...
Anyone who follows horses knows all this, and has read the articles cited verbatim by the submitter.
(If you dont follow horses this entire article is meaningless)
Slashdot, you fail. Again.
Altho since you bring it up.
It's really kind of barbaric what we do to horses for our own amusement now.
Not even 'pets' to most people involved. More like slaves we get to bet on.
if races are so stressful on the horses that sometimes they break and have to be euthanize, doesn't this type of event count as animal abuse?
just a thought.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
...cruelty is OK so long as it's an old tradition!
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Science was NOT wrong, you fucking imbecile. Science didn't predict who would win, it described why it's difficult to win all 3 races. It still is, this horse was just up to the unlikely task.
Load up slashdot, audio starts playing automatically -- from an ad! I hit the mute button on the ad and it doesn't work! Audio still plays. I was having some decency in not using adblockers so /. still gets the ad revenue. Now I will likely never return. Screw you slashdot. Then, I have to put up with a terrible article that makes no sense. Slashdot died after Dice tookover, sorry.
Mostly, they pump them full of drugs. Even worse than human for-pay athletes, which is a hard one to beat.
Professional sport in general is a disgrace, animal professional sport is even more loathsome.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
Have gnu, will travel.
Two weeks 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.
That happened in 2008!
Not only was science not "wrong," but if science was wrong there would be no story. The science says that this was a statistically improbable event. If the science was wrong, this would happen all the time and the fact that it happened again wouldn't be newsworthy. So not only is this the dumb clickbait that we know it to be, but contradictory to the whole premise. No internal logical consistency; complete garbage.
For a moment I thought it was about actual pharaoh... but nope... invert the a and o.. and you get some junk about horses... nobody gives a damn here.. we're nerds.
but, but... Science!
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Wasn't Eight Belles put down in 2008, as indicated by the linked article?
We can have faster-than-light travel after all! It turns out all we have to do is 'overcome' Special Relativity!
but, but... Science!
Even better, science was wrong!
American Pharoah had a difficult trip in the Derby and still pulled it out. He won handily at the Preakness in the mud and still looked like he had something left. Top jockey and trainer. This was the clearly the best horse who'd won both races since the last triple-crown winner. Don't know if he ran against a relatively weak field (didn't check the times). There's also the odd chance he was given a pass to boost the industry. Hollywood Park was demolished recently and the publicity surrounding a triple-crown winner can't hurt. Still an impressive performance.
When I was an American in Germany, recovering from an injury, I told a friend that I took ibuprofen on a daily basis.
She said, "What? That's for animals!" Then continued, "In Germany we have a saying, 'ibuprofen makes old horses run fast.'"
... there will be a way
American Pharoah won the triple crown not because of it recovers faster than the rest
It won because it has the will to win
Similarly a person who has the will to succeed will often become successful
The key is in WILL POWER, without which there is no reason to accomplish anything
Many of the comments in /. are devoid of any meaning, as the authors of those comments themselves do not even know the true meaning of 'success' - In other words, most of the human visitors to /. do not even have the the same level of will power of the horse "American Pharoah"
The Real Quiet lost by a nose in last race Belmont Stakes. So it is not all that improbable.
What the fuck is wrong with those people? You broke the horse, so you are responsible for her. Then you push her so hard that she brakes both ankles with compound fractures, then kill her, and just move on? Brilliant comment about how she must have tripped over own legs, except for the fact that she had no fluid in her joints, that might possibly have had a lot more to do with it. Useless, sacks of shit.
I art more snarky, and terse than thou. I art Slashdot!
None of the spelling nazis are going to complain about how this horse's name is misspelled? Slashdot, I am disappoint.
Please ignore. Turns out it was a false alarm.
Thank you,
Your so-called The Management
His name is "Fart Rocket" Even if he doesn't win, the commentator's audio track should be fun to listen to. Fart rocket poops a lot! (I considered the name "Sir Poop-a-lot" as well)
Your sister.
That's what overcoming biology means, doesn't it?
American Pharoah did not overcome biology, the biological limitations that were in place for an organism, as mentioned in the article, vary from organism to organism. Lets be accurate here, science wasn't wrong, it was one person's estimate of the amount one horse could run and recover, relative to other horses in a given time, and that one estimate did not fit the reality. This in no way disproves anything resembling science. Sorry to tell you intelligent design promoters and science deniers, this proves nothing more than one person's estimate being wrong. American Pharaoh did not overcome anything more than a bit of fatigue from a series of hard runs, not any biological limitation that exists in reality. Horses have been doing this since there have been horses on this space rock called Earth... So move along and laugh at the idiotic commentary kids!!
Approximately 1000 horses a years a euthanized due injuries sustained from this "sport". If people died at a similar rate playing soccer for example, the sport would be banned.
This kind of science analysis speaks the norm, but it is the abnormal that wins the Triple Crown and anything else "science" gets wrong.
E Proelio Veritas.
What's that? A pickled king who failed at using a spellchecker?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
they push these animals too hard, it's not fair to them, they need to invest those millions in finding ways to 3d print horse bones or have them wear special leg braces when racing to repair injuries and prevent them, they shouldn't be put through something that could result in them being euthanized because vets can't do anything for them because they broke a leg or something or the owner doesn't want to pay up the massive costs for rehabilitation
and this just mentions bone and muscle stuff, the stresses on a horse's heart and circulatory system when running those kind of distance at speed with short recovery times between races is tremendous and it's the reason why this is so rare, not many horses can operate like machines, only the ones that can have any chance at winning this, and sure it's fun for them, horses run, it's what they do, but these are vastly unnatural stresses to demand out of them
Almost as repugnant as, say, gymnastics. Or ballet. Or any other "sport" or "performance" where participants are inducted at a young age, then subjected to agonizing and (often) permanently crippling stresses.
Because the person doing the science is completely fucking wrong too.
Any fucking 'science' that ignores the fact Lactic Acid is produced TO FUEL MUSCLES is ALWAYS going to come to the wrong fucking conclusion.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/m...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05...
http://dailyburn.com/life/fitn...
Some idiot failed biology and suddenly this becomes news for Slashdot.
Or rather, news for the moronic and idiotic Hugh Pickens.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
So much for analysis.
More likely, somebody's "thesis on impact of biological factors of equine performance" was not as substantial as they may have thought
What is that Scientific Method again? Form hypothesis, test, prove/disprove, reconsider...
I think that they are at the reconsider step in regards to their hypothesis, but the scientific method works just fine as long as nobody assumes that a hypothesis is some unalterable biblical truth
Wherever You Go, There You Are
"...probably won't," concluded Pandell...Science was wrong.
What a dumb remark. The prediction, that the Triple Crown is an unlikely event, is correct. That this outcome happened to occur in our timeline is neither here nor there.
.: Semper Absurda
I listened to a radio article on this recently. From the various races won, it's around $4 million.
Not a bad chunk of change, but the good money from now on won't be in racing, but rather in breeding. It's anticipated that the owner could make up to $60m in stud fees. So now that AP has done the hard part, the owner gets to enjoy some cash and the horse gets to enjoy life carousing with a bunch of fillies. Not a bad retirement.