Any horse racing experts in here? What's the benefit in making a horse into a gelding?  Seems like the testosterone would help the horse run faster.  Does snipping away that part make the horse more aerodynamic? [:D]

[beathorse]

With drugs now, geldings are at no disadvantage.  In fact, some trainers strongly believe they have an advantage in that you can better control their disposition and limit muscle growth (especially at the neck).  I've read that geldings are usually taller because the epiphyseal plates close later.  Longer legs would seem to be an advantage.  For the cost conscience, geldings are nice because they usually require less feed.  Controlling the disposition of the horse by the dosage of hormones when not training and more closer to the race can be helpful.  Some of the more aggressive horses have to be gelded because of frustration or self-mutilation.  My neighbor now gelds his good race horses after losing one a few years ago when it killed itself trying to get through a fence to get to his mares.  As I understand it, the biggest disadvantage is that geldings often learn the bad habit of not picking-up their hind feet high enough when running.z

what the hell kinda name is "funny cide" is what i wanna know. maybe i just dont get it...

mattsd, you're right about the name being strange.  Putting funny with a word that means to kill (as in suicide, genocide,  bactericide, ecocide, or insecticide) is strange.  Funny kill?z

Most often a throughobreds name comes from combing parts of the Sires and Dams names

Case in point:

Funny Cide a colt (now gelded - ouch)

Sire - Distorted Humor

Damn - Belles Good Cide (who was sired by Slewacide and if IIRC, Slewacide was sired by Slew City Slew)

I had the worst case of seconditis today [:(]

gelding a stallion for racing makes a ton of sense.

it takes away the troublesome attitude and meaness that is sometimes brought about from the bad side of testosterone.

i work a second gig a few days a week at a karge veterinary reference lab and have had to learn quite alot about race horses.

most people dont realize how dangerous stallions can be.

take WAR EMBLEM...for example.

his nickname to those in his training facility is hannibel lector due to his totally nasty disposition. i had also heard..since he was so mean, there was always a number of people around whenever he was being handled for safeties sake..

same with rodeo and working horses..

geldings are predominate there too. they'll have size and strength w/o the hassles..