I think Cox remarked that it is never actually good for a horse to wheel back in a competitive race 14 days later.... most trainers feel that way, but the prestige of the Preakness, coupled with the fabled Triple Crown gets in the way of better judgment

100%

That's exactly it, and why you see so many Derby also-rans skip it. 

Although years ago horses often did run every 2 weeks, there was even a time when horses would run in the Derby Trial Stakes and come back in less than a week for the Derby.  

It looked like Smith and Rosario were riding for Teflon Bob in the derby

I think the horses could come back quicker when not on Lasix

Gerh said...

I think the horses could come back quicker when not on Lasix

That's exactly right. 

I have always had suspicions about Baffert for a number of years.  Someone with eczema or poison ivy would have had to slather a lot of that kind of cream on their hands, then be doing a tongue tie or something. 

But given the nature of politics these days and how unhappy many people are with the "saudi connection" you never know what some xenophobic "patriot"  extremist is going to do.   It's the one time I'm giving Bob the benefit of a doubt here.....I can't believe I'm doing that myself, but there it is.  

The manner in which i have heard many horseplayers denigrate foreign entries isn't my imagination (often to the point where they are considered "invaders" of sorts)...... so I expect it could be done with owners as well.  The owner seems like a very nice and humble man.  And our breeders sure don't mind taking their $$$.    so there's that......

I certainly don't believe in mixing international politics with horse racing, and have never engaged in such behavior.   These are horses, not heads of state.

Months leading up to around the time Paynter was really sick, there was a number of Muslim Owners

horse's getting sick, or sluggish in there appearance and it came up maybe it was an conspiracy, After Paynter

finished his fight ,no more was ever said about it. Or at least I didn't hear anymore about it. Sabotage who knows.

I wouldn't put anything past a lunatic, especially a hateful lunatic.  The single reason I don't by the overage as the result of a xenophobic operative is that the bad test was 21 picograms.  Someone as hateful as you suggest would more likely simply poison the horse a la Phar Lap & kill him.

Why go to the trouble to titrate a dose or multiple doses of a common anti-inflammatory unless you attribute a lot more intelligence to hate-driven saboteur than I do.

I suppose it's possible but it seems highly unlikely to me.  Occam's Razor = Baffert is responsible.