Rumor Has It

Current Mood: Alarmed

Rumor has it that we are going to have our 12^th thoroughbred in history to win the elusive Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Well, this was certainly a rumor. As has happened many other times in the historical Belmont, our hopes were once again zapped, as were those of the fans of the favorite, Big Brown. I, as most others, do not think it was the 1.50 mile Belmont length that broke the hopes of his owners, his fans, even people that don’t know anything about a horse or a hoof. The last Triple Crown winner was Affirmed, 30 years ago, in 1978. I think everyone felt like it was about time for us to have a new hero and this fine young stallion appeared to be truly a superior horse, more than good enough to be our new hero. This season had already been marred by the loss of the beautiful, high quality mare, Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby. We all became physically ill, our hearts broke as we saw the big, black mare lay motionless on the track. Little did we expect to hear so quickly that she had been immediately euthanized due to breaks in both front canon bones at the fetlock area. We were desperate for a hero this season, evidently the owners were too. I am afraid Big Brown’s loss will only bring more negative news.

First of all, his owner and trainer made a decision to run the stallion with an injury, a quarter crack to his hoof. I have had several horses with this injury, and when I learned to recognize them and treat them the horses recovered well. However the do require adequate treatment and it is not a short term treatment. When I was young girl, I lost a mare to this problem. I had no idea what was wrong with her and the infection became so extensive, her hoof split, and we had to euthanize her. So, yes they do require treatment. The infection normally begins in the coronary band and will continue toward the center of the hoof. The crack will normally become thicker as it grows inward, which leads to more instability, inflammation, and infection. In the case of Big Brown, his crack was spotted and treated immediately, as well as around the clock, but this crack was only found May 23^rd, not very much time to treat the problem. Big Brown did not have the type of crack that was just a little split, his was actually an infection inside the hoof, an abscess….these are worse than the minor splits. His abscess was treated and did clean and dry up before being sutured, but I just can’t help but think all this happened in a very short period of time. It was also very close to a long race on a hard track where a sore foot would be striking the ground repetitively. Quarter cracks are one of the most common causes of lameness and/or decreased performance in show, performance, and race horses. Another reason I would think twice about running my horse, but from what I understand Big Brown was to be retired from the track. This was Brown’s third problem with foot lamenes in a relatively short period of time. He has also had two abscesses in each front foot that caused hoof wall separations that laid him up for 45 days or longer last winter. All this certainly makes one question the soundness of Big Brown’s feet, is it a genetic problem or just a problem that this young stallion seems to possess. It is a problem in my opinion though…three issues of lameness in less than a year’s time. It could be an infection problem though and have nothing to do with the quality and over-all apparent greatness of this horse. As you can tell, I am torn.

This being Big Brown’s last race would not have been a surprise had he been the Triple Crown Winner. We certainly would not want something to happen to such a valuable stallion! If we had only known? His track earnings were already over, his true earnings were to be in his career as a breeding stallion, ESPECIALLY if he had been a Triple Crown Winner!!! If he were lame, it would not affect his “money making” career, only his physical and mental health???? I personally have made the decision to take my own horse out of the show ring while treating a quarter crack. My reasoning is a personal issue, one of humane treatment of the horse, a better heal with less chance of re-occurrence, and a longer show career with a sound horse as a end result.

Secondly the controversial issue of using anabolic steroids on race horses and other performance horses. These steroids are believed to boost stamina, power, and decrease fatigue. This seems even more glaringly disturbing than the quarter crack issue. Steroid use has been banned in thoroughbred racing as a performance enhancing drug, but it can be used to treat respiratory and abdominal illnesses. Testing is extremely slack, basically everyone jokes about who has the best vet, not who has the best horse. We were told in the pre-race show today that Big Brown has not had a steroid shot, or steroids of any kind since April 15^th. It takes 30 days for steroids to get out the horses system. As we watched the horses run the Belmont today, something was not right with big bay stallion (you may call him brown, but he is really a bay). We did not see him round the turn and break away for the finish line as he always does. When his jockey, Desormeaux asked him to “kick in his jets“, that is what he always looked like…he appeared to listen to his jockey and take off as if he had jet rockets attached, leaving his competition lengths behind him. He was always so thrilling to watch as he rounded the turn. He was not, I was afraid he was going to break down…maybe a heart attack, an internal bleed, I did not know, but I knew something was wrong. Not until the race was over did I start thinking of all these circumstances, all these things that are not unusual at all when you look at “the big picture“. Was it the heat, was it the lack of a monthly steroid shot, especially when he was experiencing a very serious injury. Could using the controversial shots make a good horse appear to be a great horse??? Even a great horse cannot run to the best of his ability when there is the slightest bit of laminitis from a healing or healed quarter crack (or as Mr. Dutrow said a “no issue“ quarter crack…I have found that there is no such thing as a no issue quarter crack???). Or can we hope that the great horse had too many unfortunate circumstances stacked against him today, too many negatives that even a great horse could not overcome. Let’s hope that this is the situation.

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