Letters to the Editor March 11

Connections should give Caleb's Posse shot at top honor

From reading trainer Donnie Von Hemel's remark "We will be interested in mostly one-turn races this year," in the Feb. 12 article "Caleb's Posse headed to New York," and more recently "There are plenty of races at seven and a mile," in the March 7 "Caleb's Posse points to rematch" after his sharp second-place finish in the Tom Fool, one reaches the conclusion that the horse's connections consider him nothing more than a miler, and that he will be restricted to that distance limitation.

May I suggest that this could be a very special horse (of the year?), and that there is no evidence to prove any supposed limitations. He has won around two turns, and each of the times he lost there were extenuating circumstances. For instance, the track for the Indiana Derby was severely biased toward horses who raced on the rail. The two horses who were compromised by this bias were Caleb's Posse and Shackleford, who would go on to run one-two in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. The favorite in the BC Mile, Wilburn, had won the Indiana Derby while on the rail. He failed to raise a gallop in the BC Mile.

I urge the people in Caleb's Posse's camp: You may be training and racing the Horse of the Year. Please give him that chance.

Russell A. Weber - Amityville, N.Y.