Unbridled Unsoundness Redux

I meant to blog about this when it happened, but with one thing and another, it got pushed down my list of priorities, so I apologize that this news is a bit out of date.

In late January, a grey son of Unbridled's Song by the name of Winslow Homer won the G3 Holy Bull in his stakes debut. I wondered how long he would last before the inevitable. As a son of UBS, surely his chances of actually making it into the gate for the Kentucky Derby were slim. The predictability of such things would almost be funny if it weren't so maddening and tragic, too. Not surprisingly, only ten days later, the Blood-Horse reported that Winslow Homer had been sidelined with a stress fracture in his cannon bone and of course was off the Derby trail.

One of the more troubling things to me about WH's story, aside from the obvious, is his owner, Rick Porter. By my count, Winslow Homer is now the fourth major UBS horse that Porter has purchased and campaigned, and every single one of them has had a career cut short by injury. Rockport Harbor, beset by injuries, managed only 8 starts in three years. Eight Belles broke down catastrophically in the 2008 Derby. Old Fashioned retired with a slab fracture in his knee in April of his 3 year-old season. And now WH is shelved until at least April this year with a summer campaign in mind. I'll believe it when I see it.

So, Mr. Porter, please, for the love of the breed, STOP supporting unsound sires! Obviously you're not alone in spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in UBS offspring, but even one owner can make a difference.

And the saddest part of the WH story is that he was named in honor of the filly Eight Belles, a pun after the painting "Eight Bells" by the real Winslow Homer. What a sorry tribute.