"Does he look ready to you, Hoof Blog Friends?" Hungarian Thoroughbred trainer Sandor Ribarszki holds the left front foot of his country's idol racehorse "Overdose" in Neuenhagen near Berlin, Germany, last week. Overdose suffered from laminitis more than a year ago. He seems to have hoof casting tape or a wrap (as suggested by one reader--I assumed it was tape since it is so prevalent these days) on this left front and a glue-on shoe on his right front. The Hoof Blog has had a lot of readers from Hungary in the past year; perhaps they are learning about laminitis treatments used on their national hero. Overdose's folkloric comeback is reported on web updates in all sorts of languages. Photo from fOTOGLIF EPA/TIM BRAKEMEIER
Overdose's return to racing has been pushed back again: the racing press in Europe reported him scratched from a race in Berlin, Germany today, but entered in a race at Royal Ascot in England over Memorial Day weekend. That's a tall order for a horse recovering from laminitis. The five-year-old has a huge following all over the world and over 1,000 Facebook fans. They call him "The Budapest Bullet". He's the winningest racehorse to come out of Hungary in generations. Photo from fOTOGLIF EPA/TIM BRAKEMEIER
This video slide show of images of Overdose has a soundtrack of one-liners from the US film Seabiscuit. There are a lot of parallels between the two horses. Overdose was purchased for 2000 pounds in England and went on to win there and in Germany, Italy, Hungary and France. He is the national hero of Hungary and the Hungarians want to see him run again.
Just watch him run; this race was at the beautiful Baden-Baden spa in Germany. It's fun to watch this clip just to listen to the call.
16 May 2010 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com
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