dirty pool

theres a fish rotting in belmont and this ain't denmark or the euro 2012...so there.

lots of problems with Mr O'Neill .........this doesn't add up.

so your a relatively obscure trainer......you find a good horse, qualify for the Derby and somehow WIN.....you hustle off the Pimlico (earliest arrival for a Champ in history) and you soak it all in...the attention, the hoopla the fanfare........now you WIN the preakness.......holy cow,........now you are the talk of the nation....now you are on the precipice of accomplishing something that the greats, Baffert, Lukas, Zito have never donw.....you are going for the triple crown.......34 years in the making, the country is pulling for you........1 day before the race you "notice" a swollen tendon.........what do you do ?

A) put out a statement acknowlidging the injury and stating you will wait until Saturday to decide if he will go.

B) Hide the injury, and hope the swelling goes down overnight and maybe give it a go anyway.

C) start hittin the bottle and cursing your dam bad luck and leak the insider info to the wiseguys.

D) declare the horse out of the Belmont, set your sights on Saratoga, the Travers, the Breeders Classic and horse of the year honors.

E) none of the above

O'Neill immediately announced the horse was " Retired " .......WTF ?   a swollen tendon.......RETIRED ??

he then went on to tell a seemingly rehearsed story about his life, his love of the sport and how he took 2 busses to get to the track when he was ten years old....almost like an audition for future hire...

he then went on to thanks all the handlers by name, pedro, felix, manny etc etc like he was accepting an Oscar.

missing was the emotion of having a once in a lifetime dream CRUSHED an hour ago......he sure seemed composed....almost as if he knew it was coming......almost as if he decided to scratch the horse the moment that Belmont announced all horses would be quaranteened for supervision 3 days before the race.

he is a convicted cheater.....but now he is also a thief......he stole the honor, oppurtunity and glory of going for the triple crown from Bob Baffert and Bodemeister.....and he should be banned for life....

not that any of us will ever run into "I'll have another" over a bowl of Oats on the Back Barns at Monmouth....BUT if you , don't blame him , this beautiful equine beast has done nothing wrong, he can't fathom what is happening around him , and now to add insult to a fake injury, they are gonna have him lead the other horses onto the track for the start of the race????    this poor Horses heart will surely break when He's not allowed in the starters Gate......there is no reason to do this, except to squeeze the last 2 minutes of fame for o'neill........disgraceful.