Thomas Drury Jr. looking forward to the 2020 Preakness Stakes

By Bill Heller

Nudged into the Kentucky Derby spotlight by Art Collector’s commanding 3 ½-length victory in the Gr2 Blue Grass Stakes July 11 at Keeneland, Tommy Drury is an overnight sensation—30 years after he began training Thoroughbreds. Art Collector gave Drury his first graded stakes victory in the Blue Grass Stakes, earning enough points to start in the Kentucky Derby for owner/breeder Bruce Lunsford. 

On September 1 Churchill Downs reported that Art Collector, the son of Bernardini, nicked the bulb of his left front heel with a hind hoof while galloping Monday. Because of horse racing strict medication rules, the horse could not be treated with an anti-inflammatory this close to the race. 

“He grabbed himself yesterday morning training,” trainer Tommy Drury said. “It was still very sensitive this morning. When I took my thumbs to palpate the bulbs of his heels, you could still tell it was pinching him. I had to make a choice. Your horse has to always come first. To run in a race of this caliber and trying to compete against the best 3-year-olds in this country, you’ve got to be 110 percent.”

Art Collector was widely considered the biggest threat to Belmont (GI) and Travers Stakes (GI) winner Tiz the Law heading into Saturday’s 1 ¼-miles classic, coming into the race off a 3 ¼-length victory in the Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9.

“We didn’t want to take any chances with a horse potentially this good,” Lunsford said. “The Derby means an awful lot to me so it’s been kind of a tough day and night. But the horse is always the most important thing in all these things. We’ll get another chance to have another day. We’ll try and make it to the Preakness and maybe from there, the Breeders’ Cup.”

“When you’re 28, you’re thinking about winning the Derby and Breeders’ Cup races,” said Drury, who took over Art Collector’s training at the beginning of his three-year-old season. “At 48, I didn’t even know I’d win a graded stakes. To win the Blue Grass is pretty special. I’m still trying to find the words.”

This success immediately went to his head. He celebrated his greatest victory with a cold beer and a frozen pizza when he finally got home after the Blue Grass. “I didn’t finish either,” he confessed.

Why? To be back at the barn at 5:30 a.m. the next day, a Sunday. His work ethic is just one of the elements of his highly successful, yet quiet, career. His career winning percentage is an outstanding 21 percent. He won at least 20 percent of his starts in 11 of his last 14 seasons heading into this year, including seven years when his victory clip was 25 percent or higher.

No wonder top horsemen, including Al Stall, Bill Mott, Steve Asmussen, Frankie Brothers and Seth Hancock, have sent many of their horses needing a layup after surgery or time off to Drury’s barn at the Skylight Training Center, 27 miles northeast of Churchill Downs.

Tom Drury's horses on track for morning exercise at Skylight Training Center

“As far as top horsemen, he’s been a top one for years, but he just hasn’t had the opportunity to win at the highest level,” Stall said. “I send him rehab cases. We’ve had a good working relationship for more than 10 years. I might have sent him, oh gosh, over 20 a year—a couple hundred for sure. Ninety-nine percent of the time, he’s spot on about their fitness level.”

Tom Drury inspects horses as they go out for morning exercise at Skylight Training Center

Brothers said of his time knowing Drury, “It started with Tommy galloping some horses for me at Churchill Downs. He’s a smart, conscientious young man—an excellent horseman.” 

So how did Drury amass just 55 victories in his first six years of training after getting his license at the age of 18? He had to gallop horses on the side to pay his bills. “It didn’t come easy, and it didn’t come quickly,” he said. “There were days I said, `This isn’t going the way it should be going.’ But I always had at least one horse I was training.”

There was another reason he persevered. “I didn’t know how to do anything else,” Drury said.

His biggest fan, his mother Patty, said, “He started with one horse, and to have a horse like this [Art Collector] is unbelievable. I’m so happy and proud of him because he worked so hard to get to this point.”

Drury’s father, Jerry, who galloped horses, passed away two years ago. “We were close,” Drury said. “I never had the privilege to work with him a lot because he had a lot of horses. He pushed me: if you work, you have to do it at the top level. He always pushed me to do that.”

Drury began hot-walking on weekends as a kid.

“I can remember walking horses when I was 10 or 11,” he said. “It’s all I wanted to do. On weekends, I’d go to the track. It’s just been in my blood. I could never see myself doing anything else.”

He wanted to be a jockey but grew too big to do that. So he focused on training. “I had a friend, a little older, who got his license at 19,” Drury said. “Once I saw he was able to do it, I felt comfortable in my horsemanship.” He passed the trainer test and applied for a license at the age of 18.

Racing steward Bernie Hettel didn’t believe he was 18. “I looked like I was 12,” Drury said. “I think I weighed 110 pounds. I showed him my driver’s license.”

In his first six years, his win totals were five, seven, nine, eighteen, eight and eight. “I was working a second job, always galloping to help pay the bills,” he said. “Eventually, it started going the way I wanted. So I stopped galloping a few years ago. When I was riding, I worried about too many details. I think better when my feet are on the ground rather than in the air.”

One of his most successful horses was Timeless Fashion, who won 11 of 34 starts, including six stakes, and earned more than $400,000. Unfortunately, Timeless Fashion’s first jockey, Justin Vitek, wound up with leukemia.

Vitek rode Timeless Fashion in his first two starts, finishing second by a neck in a maiden race at Turfway Park, December 7, 2007, then winning an allowance race there February 2, 2008, by 4 ¼ lengths.

“Justin had told me that whole day he was feeling bad,” Drury said. “He went to the hospital that night and was later diagnosed with leukemia. It went into remission and he worked for me and rode in races. Unfortunately, his leukemia came back, and he passed away. Justin was one of my closest friends. I flew to Texas and was with him the night before he passed. It was terrible.”

Vitek, a native of Wallace, Texas, died on January 28, 2010 at the age of 36. Vitek’s biggest victory came on Miss Pickums, who captured the 2000 Gr2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs. He had won 763 races with earnings topping $9.8 million. 

Six weeks after Vitek died, Turfway Park held a night to celebrate Vitek’s life, with his mother to present the trophy to the winner of the Tejano Run Stakes. Drury, who entered Timeless Fashion in the stakes, wore one of Vitek’s University of Texas caps which Vitek’s sister had sent to him. “Justin was a big Texan football fan,” Drury explained. Drury wore the cap that night and never again.

Timeless Fashion hadn’t raced since the previous December 12th when he took the first of two consecutive runnings of the Prairie Bayou Stakes. Timeless Fashion won the Tejano Run Stakes by a half-length. “Justin’s mom presented the trophy to Judy Miller, the winning owner, and she gave it back to her,” Drury said. “Right before we went upstairs, we sprinkled some of Justin’s ashes in the winner’s circle. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. It was insane. It was brutal, but we were fortunate to have had him in our lives. It was so special to win that race with his family there.”

Drury resumed his career, which may have already been redirected by his Blue Grass victory. “This is going to change Tommy’s life,” Lunsford said. If it does, he’ll share it with 15-year-old daughter Emma, who rides show horses, and his 19-year-old son Matt, who’s in the restaurant business. They live just outside Louisville. 

Art Collector, a home-bred colt by Bernardini out of Distorted Legacy by Distorted Humor, has special meaning for Lunsford—an attorney, businessman and politician who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2008, losing to incumbent Mitch McConnell. 

Bruce Lundsford

Lunsford’s Bunting was the dam of his Vision and Verse, who finished second to Lemon Drop Kid in both the 1999 Gr1 Belmont Stakes and Gr1 Travers. Vision and Verse won four of 21 starts and earned a tad more than $1 million. “Bunting was one of the first two horses we bought,” he said. “She had several useful horses, including Distorted Legacy, who finished fourth in the 2011 Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. “We kept her as a broodmare. Her first foal was a filly that didn’t race. Art Collector is her second foal.”

Lunsford routinely sends 10 of his yearlings to be broken and trained at Travis and Ashley Durr’s Webb Carroll Training Center in St. Matthews,S.C. Durr does the breaking and training, and Ashley is the Center’s business manager.

Travis’ family raced and trained Quarter Horses, and Travis rode them at bush tracks in Georgia, S.C. and N.C., starting at the age of 12. When both his grandfather and father began working with Thoroughbreds, Travis started breaking and training them. Travis was 15 when his father passed in 1995, and he took over the business. Travis joined Webb Carroll in 2007, and in 2016, he and his wife purchased the Center.

“We are known for our large sets—15 to 17 horses in the winter,” Travis said. “All we do is breaking, training and layups. We don’t have to have things being done by a specific time. We have a lot of turnouts. We individualize the horse’s training. We just try to produce racehorses.”

Art Collector is just the latest top horse the Training Center has developed, following Havre De Grace, Country House, Abel Tasman, Firenze Fire, Goldencents, Runhappy, Irish War Cry and Shackleford.

Art Collector arrived at the Training Center in July 2018. “He showed ability from day one,” Travis said. “He stood out. He handled the breaking very well, always did his job—an easy horse to be around. He started breezing in February. He was breezing a lot easier than others. As we went on with the horse, he kept progressing the right way. He was the best of Bruce’s bunch. He sends us around 10 yearlings a year.”

On May 9, Art Collector was sent home and then to trainer Joe Sharp to begin his career at Saratoga in July. Art Collector’s first three starts were on turf. He finished second in a maiden race at Saratoga August 15, first in a maiden at Kentucky Downs and then seventh in the Gr3 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland.

Switched to dirt on November 30, he lost his action in a 6 ½ furlong allowance race under Brian Hernandez Jr., who has ridden Art Collector ever since. Hernandez was about to pull Art Collector up, but Art Collector wasn’t done, getting back in the race and finishing sixth by 8 ½ lengths in the first of four consecutive races at Churchill Downs.

Art Collector’s final start as a two-year-old last November 30 was a breakthrough 7 ½-length victory on a sloppy track.

That victory would be taken away months later. …

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Life after Lasix

By Denise Steffanus

An estimated 95% of American racehorses go postward on Lasix, a diuretic that reduces bleeding in the lungs caused by extreme exertion. Now, nearly 50 years since horsemen and veterinarians battled for approval to use the therapeutic drug on race day, stakeholders in the industry have launched an initiative to phase out Lasix from American racing. 

The debate whether Lasix, technically known as furosemide, is a performance enhancer or a performance enabler has raged for decades. With that debate comes the discussion whether Lasix helps the horse or harms it. But we’re not going to get into that debate here. 

With racetrack conglomerates such as The Stronach Group and Churchill Downs adopting house rules to ban Lasix use on race day in two-year-olds starting this year and in stakes horses beginning 2021, the political football of a total Lasix ban for racing is headed to the end zone. Whether that total ban happens next year or in five years, racing needs to take an objective look at how this move will change the practices and complexion of the industry at large. The Lasix ban will affect more than what happens on the racetrack. Its tentacles will reach to the sales ring, the breeding shed, the betting window, and the owner’s pocket.

When Lasix first was approved for racing in 1974, only horses that visibly bled out the nostrils—an extreme symptom of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH)—were permitted to use the drug. A few years later, flexible endoscopes enabled veterinarians to identify horses with trace levels of EIPH internally that qualified them for Lasix. So many horses became approved for Lasix that most jurisdictions stopped requiring proof of EIPH to send a first-time starter postward on Lasix. All trainers had to do was declare it on the entry. Soon, nearly every horse was racing on Lasix, many with no proof it was needed. And that’s the situation we have today.

Racing regulations tag a horse as a bleeder only if it visibly hemorrhages from one or both nostrils (epistaxis). For this article, “bleeder” and “bleeding” are general terms for all horses with EIPH, not just overt bleeders. With almost every horse now competing on Lasix, no one knows how many horses actually need the drug to keep their lungs clear while racing. When Lasix is banned, we’ll find out.

Safety First

Racing Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith

How a particular horse will react when capillaries in its lungs burst is unpredictable. Thoroughbreds are tough, so most horses will push through the trickle, and some may win despite it. Other horses may tire prematurely from diminished oxygen, which could cause them to take a bad step, bump another horse, or stumble. Fractious horses with more severe bleeding may panic when they feel choked of air. Will the current number of human and equine first-responders be adequate to handle the potential increase in these EIPH incidents?

Racing Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith, who earned two Eclipse Awards as outstanding jockey, has ridden in more than 33,000 races during his four decades on the track. He said he can feel a change in the horse under him if it begins to bleed. 

“Honestly, a lot of times you just don’t see that ‘A’ effort that you normally would have seen out of the horse,” he said. “You know, they just don’t perform near as well because of the fact that they bled, which you find out later. … When they bleed enough, they can literally fall. It can happen. It’s dependent on how bad they bleed. If a horse bleeds real bad, they don’t get any oxygen. … I’ve been blessed enough to have pulled them up, and if I wouldn’t have, they probably would have gone down or died, one or the other, I guess. They’re few and far between when it’s that bad, but it does happen.

Dr. Tom Tobin

“If you literally see the blood, then you stop with them. You don’t continue because it’s very dangerous.”

In 2012, Dr. Tom Tobin, renowned pharmacologist at the University of Kentucky’s Maxwell Gluck Equine Research Center, and his colleagues reviewed the correlation between EIPH and acute/sudden death on the racetrack, as set forth in published research. They noted that 60%-80% of horses presumed to have died from a “heart attack” were found upon necropsy to have succumbed to hemorrhaging into the lungs. Tobin and his colleagues concluded their review with a warning: “EIPH-related acute/sudden death incidents have the potential to cause severe, including career-ending and potentially fatal injuries to jockeys and others riding these horses.”

Mark Casse has won 11 Sovereign Awards as Canada’s outstanding trainer, five Breeders’ Cups, and three Triple Crown races. He’s a member of the Horse Racing Hall of Fame in both Canada and the United States, one of just three individuals to accomplish that feat (Lucien Laurin and Roger Attfield are the others).

“If as soon as they ban Lasix, we start having more injuries, they’re going to have to do something about that,” Casse said. “It will be more than just first-responders. That’s pretty scary to think, ‘Ok, we’re going to take horses off Lasix, and so now we’re going to need more medical people out there.’ That doesn’t sound too good to me.”

Spring in the Air wins the 61st running of the Darley Alcibiades at Keeneland Racecourse.

Training Strategies

Casse has a special way of training horses with EIPH, but he was cagey about the details and reluctant to disclose his strategy. 

“What I do is try to give any horse that I feel is a bleeder, especially four to five days into a race, a very light schedule,” he said. “That’s one of the main things I’ll do with my bad bleeders. So, in other words, not as much galloping or jogging—stuff like that.”

In 2018, trainer Ken McPeek had the most U.S. wins (19) without Lasix. Besides racing here, McPeek prepares a string of horses to race in Europe, where Lasix is not permitted on race day. He puts those horses on a lighter racing schedule.

“As long as a horse is eating well and doing well, their chances of bleeding are relatively small,” he said. “If a horse is fatigued and stressed, I always believed that would lead to bleeding.”

McPeek said if a two-year-old bleeds, the owner and trainer are going to have a long-term problem on their hands, and they’re better off not racing at two.

In 2012, the first year the Breeders’ Cup banned Lasix in two-year-olds, Casse’s rising star Spring in the Air entered the Grey Goose Juvenile Fillies (Gr1) fresh off an extraordinary effort in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (Gr1), where she lagged behind in tenth then launched an explosive four-wide dash coming out of the turn to win by a length.

The filly had run all four prior races on Lasix, but without Lasix in the Juvenile Fillies, she never was better than fifth. After the race, Casse told reporters she bled.

“She went back on Lasix,” Casse said of Spring in the Air, who became Canada’s Champion 2-Year-Old Filly that same year.

Dr. Jeff Blea is a longtime racetrack veterinarian in California and a past president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. He said racing without Lasix is going to require a substantial learning curve for trainers and their veterinarians. During this interview Blea was at Santa Anita Park, where he’s been working with trainers to figure out the best way to manage and train horses that race without Lasix.

“That’s a case-by-case discussion because all trainers have different routines and different programs,” he said. “In addition to the variability among trainers, you have individual horses that you have to factor into that conversation as well.”

When a horse comes off the track from a work or a race with severe EIPH, Blea asks the trainer if this has happened before or if it’s something new. If it’s new, he looks at the horse’s history for anything that could have precipitated it. Blea uses ultrasound and X-rays to examine the horse’s lungs.

“With ultrasound, I can often find where the bleed was,” he said. “If I X-ray the lungs, I’ll want to look for a lung lesion, which tells me it’s a chronic problem. I want to look at airway inflammation and the overall structure of the lungs. … I’ll wait a day and see if the horse develops a temperature. I’ll pull blood [work] because this bleed could be the nidus for a respiratory infection, and I want to be able to be ahead of it. I typically do not put horses on antibiotics if they suffer epistaxis, or bleed out the nose. Most times when I’ve had those, they don’t get sick, so I don’t typically prophylactically put them on antibiotics.

Based on his diagnostic workup, Blea will recommend that the horse walk the shed row for a week or not return to the track for a few weeks.

“Depending on the severity of my findings, the horse may need to be turned out,” he said. “I use inhalers quite a bit. I think those are useful for horses that tend to bleed. I’m a big fan of immune stimulants. I think those are helpful. Then just old-fashioned, take them off alfalfa, put them on shavings...things like that.”

Blea discusses air quality in the barn with the trainer—less dust, more open-air ventilation, and common sense measures to keep the environment as clean and healthy as possible.

Prominent owner Bill Casner and his trainer Eoin Harty began a program in January 2012 to wipe out EIPH in his racehorses. Casner's strategy to improve air quality for his horses and limit their exposure to disease is to power-wash stalls before moving into a shed row and fog them with ceragenins—a powerful, environmentally safe alternative to typical disinfectants. He has switched to peat moss bedding, which neutralizes ammonia, and he only feeds his horses hay that has been steamed to kill pathogens and remove particulates.

Particulate Mapping

Activities in barns, particularly during morning training hours, kick up a lot of dust. Researchers at Michigan State University looked at particulates (dust) that drift on the air in racetrack barns. Led by Dr. Melissa Millerick-May, the team sampled the air in barns and mapped the particulate concentration in a grid, documented the size of the particles, identified horses in those barns with airway inflammation and mucus, then correlated the incidence of airway disease with hot spots of airborne particulates.

Gulfstream Park has erected three “tent barns” that are large and airy with high ceilings and fans near the top.

For part of the 18-month study, the research team used hand-held devices to assess airborne particulates; another part outfitted the noseband of each horse's halter with a device that sampled the air quality in the horse's breathing zone.

Some stalls appeared to be chronic hot spots for particulates, and horses in those stalls chronically had excess mucus in their airways. Often, moving the horses out of those stalls solved the problem. 

These hot spots were different for each barn. Interestingly, because small particulates lodge deep in the lungs more easily than large ones, a stall that visibly appears clear might be an invisible hot spot. 

Getting Prepared for the Pegasus—Lasix-Free

Dr. Rob Holland is a former Kentucky racing commission veterinarian based in Lexington who consults on infectious disease and respiratory issues, for which he obtained a PhD. Months prior to the Lasix-free Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Florida, several trainers asked his advice on how to condition their horses so they could compete without Lasix. He told them they needed to start the program at least six weeks before the race. His first recommendation was to use ultrasound on the horse’s lungs to make sure they didn’t have scarring, which is a factor in EIPH, because scar tissue doesn’t stretch, it rips. Scarring can develop from a prior respiratory infection, such as pneumonia, or repeated episodes of EIPH. Next Holland directed the trainers to have the horse’s upper airway scoped for inflammation and excess mucus.

“I had one trainer who scoped the horse’s upper airway and trachea and decided, with the history of the horse, against running in the race without Lasix,” Holland said. “So there were trainers who were really on the fence, and that was for the betterment of the horse. Every trainer I talked to, that was their main focus: How do I do this so that my horse is OK? That was always the first question they would ask me. Second, they would ask me if I could guarantee [that] running their horse without Lasix wouldn’t cause a problem, and the answer is there’s no guarantee.” 

Holland instructed trainers to start cleaning up the horse’s environment at least six weeks before the race to rid the air of dust, allergens and mold. He told them not to store hay and straw above the stalls; remove the horse from the barn while cleaning stalls and shaking out bedding; don’t use leaf blowers to clean the shed row; don’t set large fans on the ground in the shed row; elevate them so they don’t stir up dust; practice good biosecurity to avoid spreading disease; and steam or soak the horse’s hay and feed it on the ground. All this reduces irritation and inflammation in the airway.

The Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park, 2020.

Holland prescribed nebulizing the horse’s lungs twice a day either with a chelated silver solution that kills microorganisms or ordinary saline solution to soothe the airway. He cautioned trainers with allergic horses not to use immunostimulants, which might cause adverse reactions in them. 

By starting the program well in advance of the race, trainers were able to experiment with management and training strategies to see which worked best.

“We programmed all the horses to be ready for a race without Lasix by starting the program at least a month before the race,” Holland said. “We tried to simulate the exact situation they’d be going into at Gulfstream—same bedding, same feed, same hay, but no meds. If the horses didn’t have a problem, they could give their best. Also, I wanted the trainers to test the theory that the horse could do OK in a work without Lasix. So the horses all worked and got scoped afterward to see that there weren’t any issues before the Pegasus. The trainers followed my advice, and they knew their horses would be OK. And they were.”

Confidentiality prohibited Holland from identifying the trainers who consulted him, but he said all their horses ran competitively in the Pegasus with only trace amounts of bleeding or none at all.

Help Us, Please

Some horsemen have expressed frustration, complaining that racetracks are telling them they have to race without Lasix …

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Sales protocol after COVID-19

By Jeff Lowe

Adapting to the new world with COVID-19 has led to a rapid integration of online bidding for Thoroughbred auctions across North America, presenting sale companies and consignors with a new challenge to supply potential buyers with enough information and technology for them to feel comfortable making a winning bid from afar. 

Keeneland, Fasig-Tipton and Ocala Breeders' Sale Co. (OBS) all added online bidding platforms by the time the sales calendar relaunched this summer after more than two months of dormancy, with sales either canceled or postponed during the height of pandemic restrictions in April and May. Regional sales scheduled for later in the year in Ohio and Ontario also moved toward a more flexible format with the option of online bidding. 

OBS was the guinea pig on two fronts amid COVID-19's impact. The sale company pushed forward with the OBS March sale of two-year-olds in training on March 17 and 18, which was right in the middle of lockdown announcements and steep stock market declines. The sale company did not yet have online bidding capabilities, but that would change by the time the OBS spring sale of two-year-olds in training took place from June 9-12. 

"We had a couple of months between sales to get the technology up and running for online bidding and it sure seemed necessary," OBS Sales Director Tod Wojciechowski said. "In the March sale, we just needed to get through it and do what we could to move horses along during a very tumultuous time, and then regroup for the sales this summer. COVID-19 was certainly a catalyst to bringing online bidding to market quicker. We had talked about doing it previously but with the pandemic, we felt we needed to get it up and running as quickly as we could." 

OBS relied on Xcira, a Tampa-based provider of auction software and technologies, to introduce online bidding functions to the OBSSale.com website in time for the spring sale. As it turned out, that sale occurred just as many COVID-19-related restrictions were being lifted. 

"We had a boost in buyer attendance from the timing there, but then in July we were back with the sale coming up when there was a big spike around us in COVID cases, and online bidding helped fill that gap in attendance," Wojciechowski said. 

Of the 517 horses that changed hands in the July sale, 72 of them (14 percent) were sold through online bidding. 

Fasig-Tipton also made a quick move to online bidding for its revised auction calendar, beginning with the Midlantic two-year-olds in training sale in Timonium, Maryland, on June 29 and 30 (with Fasig-Tipton reporting 15 horses were sold online) and continuing with an even greater emphasis on a remote marketplace in the July horses of racing age sale. 

Fasig-Tipton’s coronavirus protocols and precautions in place.

This was the eighth edition of the July horses of racing age sale and the first time it was conducted without an accompanying yearling sale. According to Fasig-Tipton CEO Boyd Browning, more than 100 people registered to make online bids for the sale, and 45 of them followed through with submitting bids. Seven horses were sold to online bidders. 

"With everything else going on in the world, we were certainly glad we added that capability for buyers to participate," Browning said. "In addition to the horses who sold to online bidders, those buyers also were immediate underbidders and second underbidders in a number of cases. There was an activity at all levels and all price ranges too.

"A horses of racing age sale lends itself to online bidding; buyers can see past performances and past races and they have a lot to go on. We'll be moving into the yearling sales and that's a little different. We'll be providing walking videos for every horse that the consignors want to do it. We'll be strongly encouraging them to do it. We'll work with them to provide the services ourselves or provide a stipend if they want to use their own vendor." 

Keeneland took online sale capabilities one step further by adding a new Digital Sales Ring platform that debuted on June 23 with a horses of racing age sale that was conducted entirely online, with technology developed by Horseco. Only 12 of the 38 horses cataloged changed hands, with a filly named Trapezium selling from Juddmonte Farms' consignment to St. Elias Stable for $327,000 as the top price. 

Keeneland officials are planning to add new online and phone bidding technology to the traditional live sale formats for the Keeneland September yearling sale and November breeding stock sales this fall, especially in light of international travel restrictions. Still, Keeneland does hope to have some international buyers in attendance. …

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Handedness - can we train a completely symmetrical horse?

By Georgie White

The dominant limb - can we train a completely symmetrical horse?

Limb dominance, handedness and laterality are all terms closely associated with the functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain and how these may influence preferred use of one side of the body; a direct example in humans would be the preferred hand he/she learns to write with or foot to kick a ball with. The racehorse is often commemorated on their speed or ability to clear a fence, but you would be surprised how relevant limb dominance is to the performance and longevity of a racehorse’s career. This preference is often evident in an individual horse’s preferred canter lead, preferred leading limb in gallop, leading and landing limb over a fence. It can be argued that the former activities can be influenced by training, but to what degree and at what point should we utilize this preference? And when should we pay attention to the risk of injury? This article is going to discuss this relevance and explain the potential implications of limb dominance.

As with many corners of equine research, the observed phenomenon first began from studying the human and has since been studied extensively in performance and leisure horses, respectively. The goal of many a ridden horse is symmetry of movement, the discipline in which they train will dictate the degree of importance of this; the dressage horse can lose palpable marks when they are not symmetrical in their movement, whilst a racehorse may not be as well versed nor will it be a direct measure of performance quality. 

Anatomical structure of a horse’s brain

The primary motor cortex is the central hub of dynamic movement, generating nerve impulses that control the execution of all movements and crossing the body’s midline to activate skeletal muscles. Every part of the body is represented and arranged somatotopically, meaning the area controlling the hoof is close to the area controlling the limb. The amount of brain matter or cortical space devoted to a body part represents the degree of control the horse has over that body part. For example, the human will have far greater cortical space devoted to intricate movements of the hands and fingers compared to the horse. In contrast the horse will have far greater cortical space reserved for movement of the ears, lips and nose to represent the vast number of social cues, foraging behaviors and body language exhibited. Although not yet proven in horses, human athletes have been shown to have increased cortical thickness in areas correlating with athletic ability or skill; this is likely to be the case in equines; for example, racehorses would likely see increases in areas devoted to limb control. 

From a lateralization perspective, the brain is divided into two hemispheres or lobes which are referred to the left and right hemispheres and divided by the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is an essential structure composed of a thick band of nerve fibers providing communication between the two spheres. Lateralization refers to these hemispheres having distinct functional differences, each offering specialized neural functions or cognitive processes. Lateralization occurs contralaterally, meaning that a horse who is left hemisphere dominant will experience a right-sided motor preference and vice versa. 

What research is there on limb dominance? 

In horses, grazing patterns are often studied, specifically noting which limb is placed forward most often; however, research is varied with some conclusions stating that innate skeletal asymmetry is highly prevalent in the foal and can be exacerbated by environmental factors. It is recommended that a farrier and vet work closely to correct visual asymmetry in goals as early as possible. A valuable longitudinal study completed by Van Heel et al., (2010) found a relationship with uneven forefeet in foals and subsequent unevenness as a yearling and then as a three-year-old; this was then found to correlate with sidedness in trot and canter transitions. This study highlights several points of interest, firstly the distinct need to correct limb asymmetries and abnormalities from an early age and secondly the potential future inclusion of quantitative laterality data at the time of studbook admission to assist breeders and owners in selection criteria. 

Later research by Austin and Rogers (2012) stated there was no significant differences in limb dominance in a group of feral and wild Przewalski’s horses, which suggested that differences can be attributed to domestication at least to some degree. This varying body of evidence opens the discussion on the effect of domestication and relevance of cultural husbandry practices; in the western world it is common practice to complete many routine tasks from the left side of the horse, e.g., leading, tacking up and mounting. Future studies that attempt to measure this cultural influence may choose to select a large group of equines of generally the same breed and discipline to act as a control and prevent skewed results. 

Many studies have attempted to decipher the causes of variation in motor bias. This is yet to have solid evidence behind it, with several studies showing links in gender and breed initially with training likely to play a part as they embark on their ridden career. As with all equine research, it is important to take note of cause and effect; for example, it may not be the fact that the horse is of Thoroughbred breeding, but the likely type of work or environment that a Thoroughbred is placed in that has supplied the correlation. 

The gallop

As many a rider and trainer will describe, a horse will naturally have a leading limb preference and over a fence, they are generally left to continue with their preference; on the flat, generally left to the jockey’s discretion but the consensus seems to be less interference the better. Then comes the bends. In the transverse gallop, the horse will have a four-beat gait—a pattern of right hind, left hind, right fore, left fore—with the left fore essentially leading the movement and acting as the leading limb round a left hand bend. In the words of Dr. Ray Baran, the correct lead is “the easiest method to get the shortest distance between two points the quickest way”; as a result the horse is in balance. 

Clockwise or counterclockwise? 

Laterality research in the racing Thoroughbred has paid special attention to racetrack direction. …

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Shrewd moves - in the sales ring - Adrian Gonzalez -high-end bloodstock at public auction - strategies for buying and selling at the yearling sales

By Annie Lambert

Bloodstock agents all have a formula, a routine, pedigree preferences and conformation predilections, which must be weighed against current market conditions and trends as they approach every sale. 

Whether you are purchasing horses for resale, to race or breeding stock, buying (or selling) Thoroughbreds is an intense business. Choosing the right weanling or yearling to pinhook is every bit as precarious as picking the right 2-year-old to run.

Adrian Gonzalez, founder of Checkmate Thoroughbreds, is no exception. The 41-year-old horseman was not born into a family with deep equine ties or historic roots. He does, however, have a family story that reads something like a cold war novel.

Gonzalez’s grandfather, Roberto, was a Cuban orphan raised in the government system and became an Olympic-caliber gymnast. Roberto was a member of the Cuban National Olympic Gymnastics Team during the Pan American Games in Guatemala City, Guatemala. During the competition he met his future wife (a student at the university where the games were held), defected from Cuba and started a family. When Gonzalez’s father Erick was 12, the family immigrated to the United States.

Adrian grew up around backyard horses in a small northern California town. While obtaining a degree in animal science at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, he paid his bills by breaking yearlings at Cardiff Stud. Team roping and cowboying on a 23,000-acre cattle ranch may not have prepared the young Gonzalez for his first foyer into Thoroughbred racing.

Checkmate sale preparations include two miles of hand walking daily, according to Gonzalez. Horses show better at the sale with the extra handling prior.

“The first morning I walked into the tack room and there are only flat saddle—English tack,” he recalled with a chuckle, shaking his head. “I honestly didn’t even know how to tack them up, but the guys showed me.”

Cardiff was sold to game show host Alex Trebek, who changed the name to Creston Farms and focused solely on breeding. Gonzalez hung up his tack and became a stallion groom and later stallion manager. His wealth of experience in the industry continued to grow.

“When the breeding season ended I switched gears and focused on the development and growth of weanlings and yearlings,” Gonzalez explained. “I became enchanted by the Thoroughbred business and put all my focus into figuring out how I could do this for a living.”

Pedigrees Are Personal

Gonzalez did figure out how to build the Thoroughbred industry into a career. When Creston Farms was sold again and became the short-lived Windfall Farms, he seized on the demise of Windfall, leased a portion of that farm and started his own bloodstock business. Checkmate Thoroughbreds came to light in 2005. In 2013, Checkmate moved to its current 66-acres in nearby Parkfield.

This pretty Malibu Moon filly was an $85,000 yearling purchased at Fasig-Tipton July and parlayed into a $240,000 resale at the Del Mar Select training sale (above).

During those early years Gonzalez dove into operating a training facility, breaking yearlings, foaling mares and offering sales consignments. When he and his wife Erin (who has an agricultural business degree) analyzed their large cash flow, they found the actual profit margin boiled down to a couple well-sold sale horses.

“It happened that we were profiting on one or two horses that we came up with ourselves,” said Gonzalez with a laugh. “We could have had just those few horses instead of the hundreds of others. Slowly we phased down on the breaking and training to focus on the sales—the pinhooking side of it.”

Personal preferences in bloodlines as well as following industry trends are not unique. Prior to readily available online statistics, Gonzalez researched and put together spreadsheets to assist his pinhooking selections. Choosing horses for resale is easier these days, but it is easier for everyone.

“When the catalog comes out, I do a lot of research,” Gonzalez explained. “Blood-Horse puts out a valuable tool called The Auction Edge. It shows the history for every horse in the family, what they sold for, which are not on the regular auction page. This past November we bought an inexpensive weanling by Overanalyze for $2,500. 

“There wasn’t much black type on the catalog page, but with a little research in Auction Edge you could see that there was an Uncle Mo 2-year-old half-sibling that had just sold at [Ocala Breeder’s Sale] March for $525,000. Knowing that there was the potential for a big pedigree update will help increase the value of your horse without you having to actually do anything to the horse.

“Coincidentally, a few months after we bought that baby the Uncle Mo filly won her first two starts in Japan by a combined 20-length margin. After that the phone was ringing off the hook, and we sold it privately for a whole lot of money.”

Gonzalez pointed out that is one reason he spends more time digging through the sales results of the families than looking at the black type on the catalog pages. The pre-sale diligence can also expose a negative. …

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Modern Saddle Design - how technology can quantify the impact saddles have on performance

By Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire

Thanks to advances in technology, it is getting easier for scientists to study horses in a training environment. This, combined with recent saddlery developments in other disciplines, is leading to significant progress in the design and fit of exercise saddles.

Back pain, muscle tension and atrophy are common issues in yards. Although there are many contributory factors, the saddle is often blamed as a potential cause. Unlike other equestrian sports, where the effect of tack and equipment on the horse has been investigated, until now there has been little evidence quantifying the influence of exercise saddles.

New era

The technological advances used in sport horse research are sparking a new era in racing, enhancing our understanding of the physiological and biomechanical demands on the horse, and helping improve longevity and welfare. For the trainer this translates into evidence-based knowledge that will result in marginal or, in some cases, major gains in terms of a horse’s ability to race and achieve results. Race research has always been problematic, not least due to the speed at which the horse travels. Studies have previously been carried out in gait laboratories on treadmills, but this is not representative of normal terrain or movement. Thanks to new measuring techniques, we can now study the horse in motion on the gallops. Evidence of this new era arises from a recent study published in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science. It found areas of high pressures under commonly used exercise saddles which had a negative influence on back function, affecting the horse’s gallop and consequently performance. 

The pressure’s on

Researchers used a combination of pressure mapping and gait analysis (see Technology in focus panel) to investigate three designs of commonly used exercise saddles: full tree, half tree and three-quarter tree. The aim was to identify pressure magnitude and distribution under each of the saddles then to establish whether the gait (gallop) was improved in a fourth saddle designed to remove these pressures. 

Areas of high pressure were found in the region of the 10th-13th thoracic vertebrae (T10-T13). Contrary to popular belief, none of the race exercise saddles tested in this study produced peak pressure on or around the scapula. The pressures around T10-T13 at gallop in the half, three-quarter and full tree were in excess of those detected during jumping or dressage in sport horses. They were also higher than pressures reported to be associated with clinical signs of back pain. Therefore, it is widely accepted that high pressures caused by the saddle could be a contributory factor to back pain in horses in training.  

Three most commonly used saddle-tree lengths, plus the new design (purple 40cm)

Half tree: High peak pressures in the region of T10-T14 were consistent with the end of the tree.

Three-quarter tree: Peak pressure was localised on one side of the back at a time, depending on the horse’s gallop lead.

Full tree: Peak pressure was further back and, although not high, gait analysis demonstrated a reduction in the extent to which the hindlimb comes under the horse, reducing the power in the stride.

New design: A more uniform pressure distribution, recording the lowest peak pressures at each location.

Lower pressure leads to longer strides

When looking at propulsion, there are two important measurements: the angle of the femur relative to the vertical and hip flexion. When pressures were reduced beneath the saddle, researchers saw an increased femur-to-vertical angle in the hindlimb and a smaller hip flexion angle (denoting the hip is more flexed).

A greater femur-to-vertical angle indicates that the hindlimb is being brought forward more as the horse gallops.

A smaller hip flexion angle denotes the hip is more flexed, allowing the horse to bring his quarters further under him and generate increased power.

mproved hip flexion was recorded in the new saddle design (A) compared to a commonly used saddle

When pressure is reduced in the region of T13, the hindlimb is allowed to come more horizontally under the horse at this point in the stride, leading to an increase in stride length. Researchers speculate that this could be due to the fact that the thorax is better able to flex when pressure is reduced.

Perhaps surprisingly, the study found that reducing saddle pressures did not result in any significant alteration in the forelimb at gallop. The major differences were recorded in hindlimb function. This could be explained anatomically; the forelimb is viewed as a passive strut during locomotion, whereas the hindlimbs are responsible for force production.

This is consistent with findings in the sport horse world, where extensive research investigating pressures in the region of the 10th-13th thoracic vertebrae has shown that reducing saddle pressure is associated with improved gait features in both dressage and jumping. 

Speed matters…

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Nutrition - how to rein in your complex carb intake for times when work drops

By Catherine Rudenko

Carbohydrates are by far the largest component of any horse’s diet, typically two thirds by weight, yet we often focus more on other nutrients, such as protein—which in comparison forms only a small portion of the total diet at around 8-13%. Carbohydrates, specifically the balance between differing carbohydrate sources, influences three key areas relating to performance.

The choice of carbohydrate influences the type of energy available, providing varying proportions of ‘fast release’ or ‘slow release’ energy. The type of carbohydrate chosen also impacts behaviour, increasing or decreasing risk of excitability and certain stereotypical behaviours. Last, but by no means least, the choice of carbohydrate and the way in which it is fed impacts digestive health and the ability of the digestive system to convert food to ‘fuel’ for the body.

Getting the balance right between the different types of carbohydrates is important for getting the right results when having to adjust the intensity of training, when resting a horse and when working back up through the stages of fitness. 

What are carbohydrates? 

There are different ways of classifying or grouping carbohydrates, depending on whether you take things from the plant’s point of view or that of the digestive anatomy of the horse. Working with the horse in mind, carbohydrates are best classified by the section of the digestive system that they are processed in—either the small intestine or large intestine. The site of digestion determines the type of energy provided, often referred to as fast releasing for the small intestine and ‘slow releasing’ for the large intestine. The group of carbohydrates, known as hydrolysable carbohydrates, are the group behind the description of fast releasing, whilst the group known as fermentable carbohydrates are those forming the ‘slow releasing’ category. Within the fermentable group, there are three sub groups of rapid, medium and slow. 

What are carbohydrates made of? 

There are many types of carbohydrates in the horse’s diet, ranging from simple sugars to more complex structures. They are defined by their degree of polymerisation, which refers to the way in which sugar units are joined together. How a carbohydrate is formed and the type of link present are important as they determine if digestion is possible in the small intestine or whether fermentation in the large intestine is required. This influences the type of energy available. 

For horses in training, the type of carbohydrate of particular interest is the polysaccharide group which includes starch, cellulose, hemicellulose and fructans amongst others. Starch is found in significant quantities in hard feeds, whilst cellulose and hemicellulose, amongst other fermentable carbohydrates are abundant in forages. Pasture is a source of fructans, which can change rapidly depending on growing conditions and daylight hours. 

Structure

Single sugars, also called simple sugars, comprise one unit only. They are categorised as monosaccharides—the most commonly known being glucose. For horses in training this is a highly valuable sugar as it is the main ‘fuel’ for muscles. Glucose forms the basis of many of the more complex structures of interest to horses in training.

When two sugars join together, they are known as a disaccharide—the best known being lactose which is found in mare’s milk. Oligosaccharides refer to more complex structures where more units are joined together—a common example being fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) which many horses in training are specifically fed as a prebiotic to support digestive function. 

Type of Carbohydrate

Polysaccharides, our group of particular interest, are significantly more complex chains that are branched and are not so easily digested as the simple sugars. The branched nature of polysaccharides, such as starch and cellulose, are the result of links between chains of sugars. The type of link present determines whether or not it will be possible for the horse to digest this form of carbohydrate in the small intestine or not.

Starch



Starch is the primary carbohydrate of interest in our hard feeds. It is a hydrolysable carbohydrate, which can be digested in the small intestine, releasing glucose into the bloodstream. For horses in training this is the most important fast release energy source. Starch is found in all plants, with the highest quantities seen in cereals such as oats, barley and maize.

Composition of cereals commonly used in racing feeds

Starch is made up of two types of sugar chains: amylose and amylopectin, which are formed from glucose units. Amylose itself is easily digested, however amylopectin has a different type of bond connecting each branch, which the enzymes of the small intestine cannot break down. Feed processing, which changes the structure of starch and breaks apart the previously indigestible bonds, is therefore a key factor in ensuring that when starch is fed that the maximum amount of glucose is derived. 

Amylose and Amylopectin 

Feed processing comes in many forms, from simply crushing or rolling the grain to cooking techniques including micronizing, steam flaking, pelleting or extruding. The amount of processing required for what is deemed efficient digestion differs by grain type. Oats have a natural advantage within the cereal group as they can be fed whole, although processing can still improve digestion. Barley, wheat and maize cannot be fed whole or simply rolled. They require cooking to ensure that starch becomes available, and the impact of cooking processes is much greater for these grains. 

The availability of starch is assessed through the amount of glucose released into the blood after feeding. The study below shows the effect of steam cooking maize (corn) compared to two processes that simply change the physical appearance, cracking or grinding. Steam-flaked maize is more available as shown by the greater glucose response. 

Starch is a fast release energy source, being digested in the small intestine, and the term can easily be misunderstood. It does not mean that the horse will suddenly run at top speed nor appear to be fuelled by ‘rocket fuel’. The word ‘fast’ relates to the relatively short time it takes for digestion to occur and glucose to be available. …

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Hoof Conditioning - impact of different types of surfaces

By Amy Barstow

Over the years there has been a steady move away from traditional concrete surfaces in yards towards surfaces that are generally considered softer, such as rubber. Furthermore, in some areas, the surfaces of the tracks which link yards with training facilities (horse walks) have also moved towards ‘softer’ surfaces. This has led some to wonder if our horses are missing out on a key opportunity to condition their musculoskeletal system. This article will explore what the scientific research tells us about how different surfaces affect the horse and what this might mean for musculoskeletal conditioning and injury resistance. 

The majority of the research that has highlighted the links between surfaces and injuries is from epidemiology studies. These studies view large populations of horses and pull together lots of different factors to elucidate risk factors for injury. They, therefore, do not attempt to investigate why surfaces may be implicated as a risk. To understand the link between surface and injury risk, other types of research must be done including biomechanics studies, lab-based studies on bone and tendon samples and prospective experimental studies. Biomechanics studies explore how the horse, especially their limbs and feet, move on different surfaces and the forces and vibrations that they experience. Lab-based work investigates how musculoskeletal tissues respond to loading and vibrations at the cellular and extracellular level. Prospective experimental studies take a group of horses and expose them to different environments (e.g., conditioning on different surfaces). Then you compare the groups, for example, looking for signs of musculoskeletal injury using diagnostic imaging techniques. The research done using these different techniques can then be pieced together to help us decide how to better manage the health and performance of racehorses. 

There is a wealth of epidemiological data to suggest that the surface type and condition during racing influences the occurrence of musculoskeletal injuries in the racehorse. Though it must be remembered that musculoskeletal injury is multifactorial with training regimens, race distance, the number of runners, horse age and sex all coming into play. Though there are comparably fewer data available relating to the effect of training surface type and properties on musculoskeletal injury rates, what is available also suggests that firmer surfaces increase the risk of sustaining an injury either during training or racing. For example, horses trained on a softer, wood fibre surface are less likely to suffer from dorsal metacarpal disease (bucked shins) than those trained on dirt tracks. However, horses trained on a traditional sand surface have been shown to be at a greater risk of injury (fracture) during racing. This could be due to the soft sand surface not stimulating sufficient skeletal loading to adequately condition the musculoskeletal system for the forces and loading experienced during racing. It could also be the result of horses racing on a surface with very different properties to those that they trained on. 

So far the majority of the scientific research discussed relates to horses galloping and cantering, which are not the gaits that they will generally be using around the yard or getting to and from the gallops. There is very little work to link sub-maximal (low) speed exercise on different surfaces to injury in horses. In a small group of Harness (trotting) horses, those trained on a softer surface had a lower incidence of musculoskeletal pathology identified using diagnostic imaging techniques, compared to those trained on a firm surface. There is also evidence of the benefit of softer surfaces in livestock housing. Experimental work by Eric Radin in the 1980s found that sheep kept on a concrete floor compared to a softer dirt floor had more significant orthopaedic pathologies at postmortem. Furthermore, the use of rubber matting reduces the incidence of foot lameness in dairy cattle. So it would appear that a softer ground surface is beneficial even at sub-maximal intensity locomotion. 

The epidemiological data discussed so far tells us that surface can play a role in injury, but it does not provide any answers for why that may be the case. From a veterinary and a scientific perspective, I am interested in how different surfaces influence limb vibration characteristics and loading in horses. …

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Minimizing serious fractures of the racehorse fetlock

By VA Colgate, PHL Ramzan & CM Marr

Minimizing serious fractures of the racehorse fetlock

In March 2020, a symposium was held in Newmarket, UK, aiming to devise measures which could be used internationally to reduce the risk of catastrophic fracture associated with the fetlock joint. The meeting was supported by the Gerald Leigh Charitable Trust, the Beaufort Cottage Charitable Trust and the Jockey Club with additional contributions from a number of industry stakeholders. On the first day a panel of international experts made up of academic professors, Chris Whitton (Melbourne, Australia), Sue Stover (Davis, California), Chris Kawcak (Colorado), Tim Parkin (Glasgow) and Peter Muir (Wisconsin); experienced racehorse clinicians, Ryan Carpenter (Santa Anita) and Peter Ramzan (Newmarket); imaging experts, Sarah Powell (Newmarket) and Mathieu Spriet (Davis, California); and vets with experience in racing regulatory bodies, Scott Palmer (New York) and Chris Riggs (Hong Kong) joined forces to discuss risk assessment protocols, particularly those based on imaging features which might indicate increased risk of imminent fracture. This was followed by a wider discussion with a diverse invited audience of veterinary and industry stakeholders on how our current knowledge of fracture pathophysiology and risk factors for injury could be used to target risk assessment protocols. A report of the workshop outcomes was recently published in Equine Veterinary Journal.

The importance of risk reduction

With the ethics of the racing industry now in the public spotlight, there is recognition that together veterinary and horseracing professionals must strive to realise an improvement in equine injury rates. Intervention through risk profiling programmes, primarily based on training and racing metrics, has a proven track record; and the success of a racing risk management program in New York gives evidence that intervention can and will be successful. 

The fetlock of the thoroughbred racehorse is subjected to very great loads during fast work and racing, and over the course of a training career this can result in cumulative changes in the bone underlying the articular cartilage (‘subchondral’ bone) that causes lameness and may in some circumstances lead to fracture. Fracture propagation involving the bones of the fetlock (cannon, pastern or proximal sesamoid bones) during fast work or racing can have catastrophic consequences, and while serious musculoskeletal injuries are a rare event when measured against race starts, there are obviously welfare and public interest imperatives to reduce the risk to racehorses even further. The dilemma that faces researchers and clinicians is that ‘fatigue’ injuries of the subchondral bone at some sites within the fetlock can be tolerated by many racehorses in training while others develop pathology that tips over into serious fracture. Differentiating horses at imminent risk of raceday fracture from those that are ‘safe’ to run has not proven particularly easy based on clinical grounds to date, and advances in diagnostic imaging offer great promise.

Profiling to inform risk assessment

Risk profiling examines the nature and levels of threat faced by an individual and seeks to define the likelihood of adverse events occurring. Catastrophic fracture is usually the end result of repetitive loading, but currently there are no techniques that can accurately determine that a bone is becoming fatigued until some degree of structural failure has actually occurred. However, diagnostic imaging has clear potential to provide information about pathological changes which indicate the early stages of structural damage. 

Previous research has identified a plethora of epidemiological factors associated with increased risk of serious catastrophic musculoskeletal injury on the racetrack. These can be distilled into race, horse and management-related risk factors that could be combined in statistical models to enable identification of individual horses that may be at increased risk of injury. 

In North America, the Equine Injury Database compiles fatal and non-fatal injury information for thoroughbred racing in North America. Since 2009, equine fatalities are down 23%; and important risk factors for injury have been identified, and this work has driven ongoing improvement.

The problem with all statistics-based models created so far for prediction of racehorse injury is that they have limited predictive ability due to the low prevalence of racetrack catastrophic events. If an event is very rare, and a predictive tool is not entirely accurate, many horses will be incorrectly flagged up as at increased risk. At the Newmarket Fetlock workshop, Prof Tim Parkin shared his work on a model which was based on data from over 2 million race starts and almost 4 million workout starts. Despite the large amount of data used to formulate the model, Tim Parkin suggested that if we had to choose between two horses starting in a race, this model would only correctly identify the horse about to sustain a fracture 65% of the time. Furthermore, the low prevalence of catastrophic injury means it will always be difficult to predict, regardless of which diagnostic procedure is employed. 

Where do the solutions lie?

A radiograph showing a racing thoroughbred’s fetlock joint. The arrow points to a linear radiolucency in the parasagittal groove of the lower cannon bone—a finding that is frequently detectable before progression to serious injury.

One possible strategy to overcome the inherent challenge of predicting a rare event involves serial testing. Essentially with this approach, a sequence of tests is carried out to refine sub-populations of interest and thus improve the predictive ability of the specific tests applied. An additional consideration in the design of any such practical profiling system would have to be the ability to speedily come to a decision. For example, starting with a model based on racing and training metrics such as number of starts and length of lay-off periods, as well as information about the risk associated with any particular track or racing jurisdiction, entries could be screened to separate those that are not considered to be at increased risk of injury from a smaller sub-group of horses that warrant further evaluation and will progress to Phase 2. The second phase of screening would be something relatively simple. Although not yet available, there is hope that blood tests for bone biomarkers or genetic profiles could be used to further distil horses into a second sub-group. This second sub-group might then be subjected to more detailed veterinary examination, and from that a third sub-group, involving a very small and manageable number of horses flagged as potentially at increased risk, would undergo advanced imaging. The results of such diagnostic imaging would then allow vets to make evidence-based decisions on whether or not there is sufficient concern to prompt withdrawal of an individual from a specific race from a health and welfare perspective. Of course there are other considerations which limit the feasibility of such a system, including availability of diagnostic equipment and whether or not imaging can be quickly and safely performed without use of sedation or other drugs, which are prohibited near to a race start. 

Diagnostic techniques for fetlock injury risk profiling

Currently there is no clear consensus on the interpretation of images from all diagnostic imaging modalities, and important areas of uncertainty exist. Although a range of imaging modalities are available, each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and advances in technology currently outstrip our accumulation of published evidence on which to base interpretation of the images obtained.  

Interpretation is easy when the imaging modality shows an unequivocal fracture such as a short fissure in a cannon bone. Here the decision is simple: the horse has a fracture and must stop exercising. Many cases, however, demonstrate less clearly defined changes that may be associated with bone fatigue injury. 

Currently radiography remains the most important imaging modality in fetlock bone risk assessment. With wide availability and the knowledge gained by more advanced imaging techniques refining the most appropriate projections to use; radiography represents a relatively untapped resource that through education of primary care vets could immediately have a profound impact on injury mitigation. The most suitable projection with which to detect prodromal condylar fracture pathology in the equine distal limb is the flexed dorsopalmar (forelimb) or plantarodorsal (hindlimb) projection. On this projection, focal radiolucency in the parasagittal groove, whether well or poorly defined, with or without increased radio-opacity in the surrounding bone, should be considered representative of fracture pathology unless evidence from other diagnostic imaging modalities demonstrates otherwise. 

Computed Tomography (CT) excels at identification of structural changes and is better than radiography at showing very small fissures in the bone. However, additional research is needed to determine specific criteria for interpretation of the significance of small lesions in the parasagittal groove with respect to imminent risk of serious injury. There are good indications that fissure lesion size and proximal sesamoid bone volumetric measurements have the potential to be useful criteria for prediction of condylar and proximal sesamoid bone fractures respectively. With technological advancement, it is likely that CT will be more widely used in quantitative risk analysis in the future. 

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has the ability to detect alterations in the fluid content of bones, which allows assessment of acute, active changes. Indeed standing, low-field MRI has been shown to be capable of detecting bone abnormalities not readily identifiable on radiography and has been successfully used for injury mitigation in racehorse practice for some time. However, when used for evaluation of cartilage and subchondral bone lesions, there is a relatively high likelihood of false positive results.  

PET is the most recent advance in diagnostic imaging. It is being developed in California and, when combined with CT, provides information on bone activity and structure. In these three images of the same fetlock, from different aspects, the orange spots indicate increased activity in the proximal sesamoid bone, which is a potential precursor to more serious injury.

Image courtesy of Dr M. Spriet, University of California, Davis.

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Chuck Simon has a trait that equals or surpasses his concern for horses and horsemen - it’s his penchant for storytelling

By Charlie McCarthy

If Chuck Simon has a trait that equals or surpasses his concern for horses and horsemen, it’s his penchant for storytelling.

A conversation with the former longtime trainer uncovers the time, while employed as an assistant racing secretary, he used a dead Standardbred to fill a race field.

The time he got his trainer’s license without taking the required test.

The time he passed through Canadian customs minus a passport.

The time he trained a horse for a German spy.

Those are just some of the anecdotes and stories from a 20-year training career that ended in July 2019, when Simon decided to spearhead the Gulfstream Horsemen’s Purchasing Association (GHPA), a subsidiary of the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.

The GHPA focused on supplying shavings, hay and feed at more affordable rates for horsemen at both Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla. 

The hope was for revenue to support horsemen’s programs, including much-needed lobbying. But the business struggled, and then was hurt greatly by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was a new venture, and we weren’t sure it was going to take off,” said the 52-year-old Simon, who fulfilled a one-year contract. “We were in uncharted waters.

“I’m happy that I did it. I experienced something new. It was a start-up company, with bumps along the way.”

This past summer, Simon began hosting a podcast named Around in Circles. While other horse racing podcasts mainly stress the game’s betting aspect, Simon and guests discuss news and issues affecting the industry.

Never hesitant to express himself, Simon has many opinions on the current state and future of a sport he was introduced to as a boy in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

“When I was about seven or eight years old, my dad started bringing me to the Thoroughbred and harness tracks,” he said. “It was kind of the adult world, and I had access to it.  

“When you’re growing up in Saratoga, you don’t realize that everyone does not have what you have. Not every place has a racetrack right in the backyard. Not every kid has access to Affirmed and Alydar.”

After graduating from high school, Simon played basketball for two years at a junior college in the Albany, N.Y. area. Then, Chuck’s father showed him a brochure for a racetrack industry program at the University of Arizona.

“It showed sunny pictures, girls and horses,” Simon recalled, “I said, ‘Damn, I’m going there!”

Simon arrived in Arizona, holding an advantage over many of his fellow students because he had the experience of having worked at both Saratoga-area tracks. In fact, he had dreamed of becoming a groom before his parents demanded he get a college education.

“A lot of the classes at Arizona were easy because I already knew everything,” said Simon, whose classmates included Todd Pletcher. “But going there helped get me connected to people outside of my New York bubble.”

While at Arizona, Simon heard from a friend, who offered a summer internship at Yonkers Raceway in N.Y. He not only took it, but within two weeks became assistant racing secretary at the age of 20.

Simon went to work full-time at Yonkers upon graduation. His duties included getting horses to fill cards for six and seven days of racing.

On one occasion, Simon was desperate to fill the field for a certain race. He even asked superiors if they could run a short field or if the card could be reduced. Neither option was granted.

“So, I find a horse that qualified three weeks earlier at Monticello and that fit the class but didn’t race again,” said Simon, who found the trainer’s phone number and called. “The guy says, ‘You sure you’re looking for me?’ I said, ‘Yeah, you had a horse that qualified three weeks ago. Have you raced that horse back? I have a race here that fits.’”

Seconds of silence followed before the man on the end said, “The filly, yeah, she passed away. She got colic.”

“Well, who knows she’s dead?” Simon quickly asked.

Although nobody outside the trainer’s immediate family and friends was aware the filly had died, Simon promised the man VIP treatment at Yonkers and convinced the guy to let him enter the horse at Yonkers.

At the draw, the judge overseeing the process was informed the filly was scratched. “Reason?” the judge asked.

“The horse is deceased,” Simon said.

Tired of office work, Simon wanted to return to the backside. During a visit to Belmont, he saw Pletcher working for D. Wayne Lukas. The former classmates chatted, and within a short time Simon had joined Team Lukas.

“I learned about the power of organization,” Simon said of his six months with Wayne and Jeff Lukas. “If things are organized, you can cover up a lot of the weaknesses or holes in the structure.”

Simon left Lukas to work for Pete Ferriola, who was among New York’s leading trainers.

“I learned a lot from Pete,” Simon said. “I learned you don’t have to train horses hard to still do well.”

After that, Simon assisted Tom Skiffington.

“Kind of like Christophe Clement—mostly turf, mostly Europeans,” Simon said. “I learned a lot from Tom Skiffington on being a horseman. He was an excellent horseman. He was as good a horseman as I ever saw.

“What I was trying to do was get as many unique, different angles of how to do it. Lukas was a very regimented three-year-old picture. Ferriola was all claimers, all the time. Skiffington was all turf.”

Although given a lot of responsibility by Skiffington, Simon moved on to work for Nick Zito for about three months. 

“I would have stayed with Zito,” Simon says, “but a job opened up with Jerkens, and jobs never opened up with Jerkens.”

No. 4 on Zito’s staff, Simon would become the No. 2 man for Allen Jerkens behind Allen’s son Jimmy.

“Nick told me, ‘Hey, it’s the chief. You gotta do what you gotta do,’” Simon said.

Simon went to see Jerkens, who asked, “You work for all those fancy guys. Why do you want to work for me for?”

“I said, ‘I don’t want to be a movie star; I want to be a horse trainer,’” Simon said. “He liked that.”

Simon spent nearly six years working for Hall of Famer Jerkens.

“He was totally different than anybody I’d ever worked for,” Simon said. “He would do things you’d never even considered, and it would make you feel stupid sometimes. …

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Lee and Susan Searing, CRK Stable (Honor A.P.) and Maggi Moss and Greg Tramontin (No Parole)

By Bill Heller

Lee and Susan Searing, CRK Stable (Honor A.P.)

Maybe it’s the genes. Maybe that’s why 72-year-old Lee Searing gets up every morning looking forward to going to work at his company, Searing Industries Steel Tubing in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and why his first Santa Anita Derby victory with Honor A.P. was the culmination of a life-long passion for horses he shares with wife Susan, his high school sweetheart. “My dad, until the day he died, worked; and until the day he died, he bet on horses,” Searing said rather proudly. “My mom was an avid horseplayer, too. It’s always been in my blood to own horses and try to achieve some things I’ve always dreamed of doing.”

Racing was also in his father’s genes. “My grandfather, an Irishman who loved horse racing, introduced it to my dad,” Searing said. In turn, his father introduced racing to Searing. “I attended the races at Santa Anita as an eight-year-old,” he said. “I remember the day.”

There were dozens of more racing days at Hollywood Park and at Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico. “I traveled down there to Mexico every weekend,” Searing said.

The family’s love of horse racing escalated when Searing’s father purchased their first horse. “My dad had Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds and Quarter Horses,” Searing said. “I gave it up for 10 years to start my company. My dad ran the first tubing machine and started two other companies. In 1985, we started Searing Industries—my dad, my brother Jim and me. We manufacture welded steel tubing.”

Lee and Susan Searing

A visit to the company’s website speaks volumes about the company’s vision: “Others see steel; we see possibilities”; and the way the Searings treat 200 employees: “Related or not, we consider all our team members to be part of the Searing family.”

Searing said, “That message about our employees, my dad taught me. Respect the working man. We share profits, and there’s very little turnover.”

He has no thoughts about retiring. “When I lose it, I will retire,” he said. “I wake up every morning and go to work. I want to accomplish more. That’s maybe one reason, right now, I relate so much to a barn, a trainer, a hotwalker, a groom. They wake up, and they want to take care of their horses.”

He considers himself lucky to have trainers John Shirreffs and John Sadler tending to his horses. “I’ve had great trainers,” he said.

He’s also had a great partner, Susan, who retired after working 37 years as a special education teacher.

“We started dating at the age of 18,” Searing said. “Racing was a weekly affair. We’d go to Caliente on weekends. It was a great place to go. She’s always followed racing and loves it.”

Her personal highlight may have come in the 2004 Gp1 Golden Shaheen, when Our New Recruit won the $2 million race. “She was the first woman to stand on the winner’s stand in Dubai,” Searing said. “They didn’t want to let her. She’s very persuasive.”

Our New Recruit, who won six of 19 starts, is one of four millionaires the Searings have campaigned under CRK Stable, named for the first initial of their three children: Christiana, Richard and Katherine. Candy Boy, who had a rough trip and finished 13th in the 2004 Kentucky Derby, Switch and Kobe’s Back have also earned seven figures. “Switch was a valuable asset,” Searing said. “She won Gr1’s.

Honor A.P., a son of Honor Code out of the outstanding mare Hollywood Story by Wild Rush, nearly cost seven figures. The Searings purchased him at Saratoga for $850,000, making him the highest priced yearling in Honor Code’s first crop. Honor Code was one of 36 foals from the last crop of A.P. Indy.   

 “We knew we’d have to pay for him,” Searing said. “We hung in there. We got him. I named him Honor A.P. in homage to his grandsire, the breed-shaping A.P. Indy. I loved A.P. Indy. It’s always been my goal to race a horse of this caliber and to stand him at Lane’s End (which stands Honor Code). I hope this horse has a chance at a second career.”

Lee and Susan with jockey Joel Rosario.

Lane End’s Will Farish is thrilled to stand Honor A.P. “He’s a horse that we have had an eye on since he was sold as a yearling,” Farish said. “April Mayberry was quietly touting him while being broken, and John Shirreffs has been high on him since he arrived at Santa Anita.”

Honor A.P. has only four lifetime starts, working around a minor foot injury. He was second to unbeaten Authentic in the Gr3 San Felipe on March 7, then defeated Authentic going away by 2 ¾ lengths in the rescheduled Gr1 Santa Anita Derby on June 20.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Searing had to watch Honor A.P. on TV. “We had a small Santa Anita Derby party at our house,” Searing said. “Family, a few friends. It was very exciting to see that horse make that move on the turn and draw away. You know what? It finally happened. I just really, really love being able to buy a horse like this. When we bought this horse, we knew we had a chance.”

Now Searing has a chance to win the Kentucky Derby on September 5. The game plan is to prep Honor A.P. in the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar on August 1. “We would prefer to stay home,” Searing said. “He’s got enough points.”

Searing is thrilled to be on the ride to Louisville. “After being in racing all this time, it’s exciting for me and my family,” he said. “We have been around the world for racing. I buy a horse, hoping for a chance he’ll bring us to these amazing races. I will participate to the limit I can.”

He will do that every day. His father and grandfather wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Maggi Moss and Greg Tramontin (No Parole)

This was an unlikely partnership because Maggi Moss’ storied career as an owner was strictly a solo act (including being named national owner of the year by the Thoroughbred Owner and Breeders Association in 2007 after becoming the first woman to finish as the leading owner in the country since 1945). “I’m a real control freak,” Moss, an attorney in Des Moines, Iowa, said. “I don’t play with others. It’s my money. It’s my horses. I take in the good news, the bad news, the disappointments and everything in between. If something goes wrong, it’s on me. I’m a one-man band, and it worked well with me.”

Until February. Still suffering from the loss of her mother last December, Moss was flooded with offers to buy her undefeated three-year-old colt No Parole, who had won his first three starts for Louisiana-breds, a maiden race by 14 ¼ lengths, an allowance race by 13 ¼ lengths and the a $100,000 Premier Night Prince Stakes by 6 ½ for Tom Amoss, Moss’ long-time trainer. “I received several generous offers—very generous—over a million dollars,” she said. “I didn’t take partners, but most of those offers were by individuals who wanted 100 percent of the horse, and more importantly, wanted to take him away from Tom. I am fiercely loyal to Tom after 17 years. He had developed the horse. I bought him, but Tom developed him. He won those races—he and his crew. Taking the horse away from him didn’t seem right.”

No Parole and jockey Luis Saez.

That opened up a possibility: finding a partner who would take less than 50 percent and be happy to keep Amoss as trainer. Tom suggested Greg Tramontin. “I didn’t know who he was, but I trusted Tom. Tom said he would be a great partner,” Moss said. “The deal was really smooth. He’s wonderful. He’s smart. He is the perfect partner. Now we’ve partnered on another horse.”

Tramontin, the 2009 founder and CEO of GoAuto Insurance in Louisiana, had just reconnected to horse racing and was delighted to take a 49 percent interest in No Parole, who improved his career record to five-for-six with a powerful 3 ¾ length victory in the Gr1 Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont Park June 20.

“I had called Tom in January to see if we can get anyone for the Kentucky Derby—a bucket item,” Tramontin said. “He said he has a fantastic horse, not just a fantastic Louisiana-bred. I didn’t know Maggi, but now we talk on the phone almost every day. She’s the best partner you could have. She’s been a fantastic partner. Tom put us together. Now, we’ve purchased another horse at the March Sale, Let It Be. We’re now 50-50 partners. I gained one percent.”

Joking aside, Tramontin, now 66, tipped off his future business acumen at the age of six. That’s when he won a competition at his Chicago Catholic school for selling the most doughnuts in his first-grade class. “The doughnut contest?” he asked. “I’m a competitive guy by nature. I was a cute little first grader. I went up and down every block in Chicago. I sold more than any kid in the whole school. They brought a truck to deliver those doughnuts. My mom didn’t know she had to deliver them. She got mad at me.” Tramontin received a wooden statue trophy of the Virgin Mary. “That’s still on my desk,” he said.

His business education was aided mightily by his grandmother around the same time. “She gave me three stocks,” he said. “I had to come home and look them up in the paper every day. The three stocks were Sears, Marquette Cement and El Paso National Gas. That wound up paying my tuition to LSU. That got me from Chicago to Baton Rouge.”

The son of a tool company worker, Tramontin grew up near Sportsman’s Park, but he didn’t get into horse racing until his close friend Bob Asaro bought a horse for $2,500 in 1989. That horse, Genuine Meaning, was named Louisiana-bred Two-Year-Old Champion and earned nearly $300,000. “Bob’s telling me, `This is easy,’” Tramontin said.

It’s not. Tramontin bought his first horse, Windcracker, who broke down in training and had to be euthanized. “Then Tom, who’s always been my trainer, calls me from England and said there’s a Louisiana horse, Artic Tracker, in a sale there,” Tramontin said. “He said he was Group placed in the 2,000 Guineas but caught the equine virus. He said, `This is a really nice horse. We’ll have to pay $40,000.’”

Tramontin said, “I’ll do it one more time, Tom.’”

They got the horse...for $80,000. Amoss told him not to worry because he found a partner for the horse in Texas. That partner reneged, so Amoss took a $10,000 share as did Bob Asaro. Artic Tracker was worth it, earning $241,795 from eight victories, nine seconds and 11 thirds from 47 starts.

In August 1994, Tramontin almost bought the horse of a lifetime, two-time Horse of the Year Cigar. “Artic Tracker had just won a stakes at Louisiana Downs,” he said. “I told Tom, `Let’s find another horse and try to get into the next level.’ He called and said, `I found one: a three-year-old in California.’ Tom said he’d been racing on turf, and that the horse is racing on the wrong surface. We made a bid for $175,000 on a Friday, and they said they’d consider it.”

Over the weekend, owner Allen Paulson decided not to sell his would-be star. “In October, he wins the first of 16 straight on dirt,” Tramontin said. “I watched him on TV and threw my sock at the TV.” By the end of Cigar’s run, Tramontin was out of socks.

Despite missing out on Cigar, Tramontin was enjoying racing, but he decided to get out when he entered the insurance business in 1995 after a successful five-year run with the Yellow Pages, beginning as a sales rep. “I didn’t want to get criticized for being in the horse business,” he said. “Insurance is a regulated industry. I took a hiatus from racing.”

He didn’t return for 23 years.

Maggi Moss

While Tramontin was out of the game, Moss, a three-time champion hunter/jumper, was flourishing. Horses have always been in her life. “It started when I was eight years old,” she said. “My dad was very adamant about learning about horses before he bought me show horses,” she said. “He had come from Chicago, and he loved horses.”

Moss joined the pony club, then got involved in hunters and jumpers. She won a national show jumping championship at Madison Square Garden.

“I came up with some of the greatest horsemen you’ll ever meet,” she said. “I rode competitively until I went to school at the University of Kentucky.”

She brought her horses to Lexington to keep competing, but found a whole new way of life in college and asked her father to pick up the horses and take them back home. “I had never had a social life,” she said. “I never had any life other than horses. I’d never left my mom and dad. I joined a sorority. You drink, you party, you meet boys. I had the time of my life. I had too good of a time—a way too good of a time. I did all the crazy things. I was in college. I got placed on probation the first semester.”

Eventually, Moss calmed down her college lifestyle, deciding to go to law school. “I got involved in law,” Moss said. “I got really serious. I worked in the Appalachian mountains with poor people. I switched from animals to people.”

She served as a public defender, then as a prosecutor and finally in a private practice. “I had some high-profile cases,” she said. Most were with personal injury, discrimination and victims’ rights. …

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#Soundbites - If you could add one Breeders’ Cup race, what would it be? Or are there enough Breeders’ Cup races already?

By Bill Heller

If you could add one Breeders’ Cup race, what would it be? Or are there enough Breeders’ Cup races already?

Dale Romans

It’s a good question. Let me think for a minute. A filly and mare turf mile. I just think it would be a good race.

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Al Stall

I’ve never thought about that. I’m not sure. It seems like they have it covered. I think it’s fine as is.

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Craig Dollase

Craig Dollase

A straight three-year-old dirt race for fillies and one for the boys. That might be something. They don’t have that. With the situation right now, all the three-year-olds are backed up because of the virus and are racing in the fall. See if that sparks some interest moving forward. It would produce big fields.

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Richard Mandella

Richard Mandella

I remember the first one in one day. It seemed more important with one day. But racing needs desperately to get people involved in it and interested in it. If they want to add another race, have one and then have an auction afterwards. You put up a good purse of $300,000, $400,000 or $500,000. And then anyone can bid on the winner. You would have to have the money in an account and a rule so that the current owner couldn’t bid and keep his horse. You make it the last race of the day. Get the winner, get the bids, and anyone could get the horse. If you did it once, it might start a following. It might get the public involved.

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David Donk

I think they pretty much cover all the divisions. I think it would dilute the quality. I think what they have is sufficient because of the horse population in the country. It’s an owner issue, not a trainer issue. At the end of the day, the buck stops there.

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D. Wayne Lukas

David Donk

I think I’d leave it alone. I don‘t think there’s any other race that would have much significance. I might change the format on Friday and Saturday. I think they definitely need to beef up the Friday card.

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Michael Matz

Michael Matz

Are there any divisions left? I think it’s enough the way it is. You don’t want to water it down anymore than it already is.

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Mark Hennig

They keep changing it so often. They’ve got 14 now. Allowing races strictly for three-year-olds would make the Classic a disaster. Most years, the older horses have been depleted, and the three-year-olds have done well. To me, do a turf mile for fillies and mares just like the boys. …

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