Mattress Mack Gets Taken to the Woodshed

There's quite the brouhaha going on, as you all know, I suppose. And right now, ol Mattress Mack is taking the worst of it.

This is the same Mattress Mack, who was described by ESPN in 2004 like this:

As the failures, injuries and losses mounted, McIngvale went through four trainers -- two-time Derby winner Nick Zito; Steve Moyer, a former Zito assistant; Leonard Duncan, a former night watchman at the racetrack, and Laura Wohlers, McIngvale's sister-in-law and a former employee at Gallery Furniture. From Houston, McIngvale would call Wohlers in Lexington, Ky., and tell her which horses should work, and how far. Mattress Mac looked like a buffoon, and racing insiders were amused.

"I think if I had it to do over, what I would do differently, I probably wouldn't buy so many horses so fast," McIngvale said. "I think I overbought horses, and I bought a lot of bad ones. And I was tampering with the trainers, saying I want to do this, I want to do that. So, my reputation was probably pretty well deserved, because I tampered a lot and got involved with something I knew nothing about.

"I wasn't as smart as I thought I was. My horsemanship ideas are zero."

The natives are restless.

I don't know a heck of a lot, but I do know a few things.

Training a sprinter isn't rocket science, so I guess a lot of people think they can do it and in the grand scheme it's probably not even noticeable. "He should work in :49 instead of :50, 1:00 instead of 1:01." I mean, that's not going to do much either way.

Keeping a horse sound and happy and caring for both their mental and physical needs is the goal of any horse trainer, because sound and happy horses race well.

From what I saw, this horse was sound and happy, and well-cared for.

What I do half the night. Watch #runhappy on camera! #breederscup #bc15 @breederscup pic.twitter.com/vLEyGCXl9j

— Maria Borell (@IMariaValentine) October 24, 2015

Other than that. I don't know Mattress Mack from a hole in the ground. But he most certainly is feeling some heat today. Whether that's fair or not is anyone's guess (social media string ups rarely are), but from reading back to 2004, I would think the criticism is not entirely out to lunch.

Enjoy your Monday folks!