IN AN EFFORT TO GET THIS THREAD BACK ON POINT..........Re alizing I am not a horseman and have never been in the "business" but as a fan and bettor - it would seem an easy solution may be to consider that mandatory retirement should be based on age (by 15) and/or by the number of starts a horse has. Clearly 300 plus starts is far too many for any horse. Not sure what the number should be .....but the wear and tear of racing that many times along with training miles in the horse's younger years, led to this situation. This seems to have been a totally preventable situation.