Racing needs stars and it need its stars to stay in training, at least long enough that they can have a lasting impact on the public before being whisked off to the breeding shed. The same refrain is heard year after year from every corner–the press, the fans, the industry--as one marquee horse after another ends their careers well before we've gotten our fill of them.

Wouldn't it be great to see Empire Maker racing this year, taking on Pleasantly Perfect and, some day, Smarty Jones? Aren't we salivating at the idea of Smarty Jones sticking around for a 4-year-old campaign rather than cashing in right away on his potential as a sire?

So why is that an owner and trainer of one of the best horses and biggest stars of her era are being ripped to pieces for foregoing retirement so that she could race as a 6-year-old?

That's been the case ever since it was announced by owner Michael Paulson that Azeri would come out of retirement and be turned over to Wayne Lukas so that she could compete this year. Most sided with trainer Laura De Seroux, who said Azeri had a tendon problem and needed to be retired after she was upset in the Lady's Secret and then trained poorly for the Breeders' Cup Distaff, a race she never made. Some argued that Lukas was so desperate to get a top horse into his crumbling stable that he sold Paulson a bill of goods, convincing him that he'd could have Azeri better than ever and ready to conquer any horse at any time or place.

Never mind that De Seroux had guided Azeri through an extremely cautious campaign in which she never faced males, rarely left California and tackled the same bunch of overmatched fillies and mares race after race rather than accepting more sporting challenges. That sort of handling clearly had left Paulson dissatisfied. The real mistake he made was not demanding that De Seroux take off the kid gloves and showcase a brilliant filly against males or at places like Saratoga and Belmont. The time to have done it was when she was in her prime, not now.

Obviously, Paulson dreamed of greater accomplishments and Lukas, who has had tremendous success over the year with fillies, including a couple who have won Grade I races over males, seemed just the person to achieve them.

The criticism intensified after Azeri was a dismal fourth in the June 19 Ogden Phipps Handicap in her most recent start, finishing 11 3/4 lengths behind Sightseek. A start earlier, she was eighth in the Met Mile in her first career start against males. The party line is pretty much this: Lukas and Paulson have mismanaged Azeri to the point where they have turned a once great champion into an embarrassingly poor imitation of herself.

There's no doubt that Azeri isn't the same horse she was in 2002 and for most of 2003, when she won divisional championships each year and was named Horse of the Year in 2002. But neither has her 2004 campaign been a complete disaster. She temporarily quieted the skeptics when she kicked off her year with an impressive win in the Grade I Apple Blossom. Wanting to keep Azeri in Grade I races, Lukas sent her into the Humana Distaff, though it is a seven furlong race and isn't run at her best distance. She was beaten, but by a mere head. In the Met Mile, she was clearly overmatched. In the Phipps, she bled, Lukas is now reporting.

"She bled significantly," he said. "Now that I know this, I will take the precautions next time she runs. It's a fixable deal."

He says he's pointing toward the Aug. 1 Go for Wand at Saratoga, where she'll likely get another crack at Sightseek. Maybe she will bounce back. Maybe she won't, but that still won't mean that Lukas and Paulson deserve such scorn. All they are guilty of is taking a chance, a rare thing in a sport where people don't dream of greatness on the racetrack but riches in the breeding shed. Even if it hasn't worked out perfectly, they should be commended for what has been a sporting gesture. There are a lot of owners and trainers out there who could learn from them.