News flash: Dr. Agne, an up-and-coming two-year-old racehorse named for the late equine podiatry veterinarian Bob Agne of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, will make his second career start on Thursday, August 28 in the Grade 3 With Anticipation Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Saratoga.
- Race 7, The With Anticipation Stakes, begins at approximately 4:25 pm. The start time may vary on the day.
- The race will be broadcast on “America’s Day at the Races”, shown either on the Fox Sports 1 or Fox Sports 2 network on cable.
- It will also be livestreamed on the New York Racing Association’s “America’s Day at the Races” telecast on the NYRA YouTube channel. Look for the August 28 video. You will also be able to find the race replay there if you miss it.
- A lot can change between now and Thursday, but Dr. Agne is currently listed as the favorite.
- Dr. Agne is easy to spot in the field with his big white blaze.
You don’t have to be a racing fan to want this horse to win on Thursday. You just have to hear his story.
On July 11, 2025, many of us watched a young two-year-old Thoroughbred win his first start at Saratoga racecourse in upstate New York. This article will explain why we watched, and why we were so happy when he won.
His story is about his dam. His story is about his name. But mostly, his story is about laminitis and the people who fight it.
The horse world erupted with a combination of tears and cheers that day as the gutsy two-year-old colt burst on the scene. Dr. Agne is the namesake of the popular equine podiatry veterinarian Dr. Bob Agne of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, who inspired so many people while treating the champion filly Lady Eli when she developed laminitis in New York back in July 2015.
This video is a feature created by the New York Racing Association to tell Dr. Agne's story.
Lady Eli was still in rehabilitation at the end of that summer, when Dr. Agne headed out on his bike for a long Labor Day ride in Vermont. He never returned. He was struck by a car and killed.
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| Dr. Bob Agne was a veterinarian at the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital's podiatry clinic in Kentucky for several years but had relocated to Saratoga to work in the practice's new hospital there when Lady Eli was diagnosed with laminitis at Belmont Park. Here he is demonstrating continuous digital hypothermia (a form of prolonged distal limb ice immersion therapy) employed during laminitis treatment. |
Lady Eli not only survived laminitis, she returned to racing just 13 months later and went right back to winning. She scored three post-laminitis Grade I victories (the Gamely, the Jenny Wiley, and the Diana) post-laminitis, was a very close second in the Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Turf that year, and won the Eclipse Award as champion turf female, all after recovering from laminitis.
• • • • •
Lady Eli was hard to forget. But the thing about racemares is that their colts and fillies eventually show up at the races, and keep their stories alive. That's exactly what happened on July 11.
Drs. Agne and Fraley weren’t mentioned very much in the years after Lady Eli retired. She went to the breeding shed, and her first two foals raced in Europe, so the laminitis story was all but forgotten, at least until this summer.
| An Eclipse award and 2014 Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner, Lady Eli ran 14 times in her career, finishing first in 10 races and second in three. (Wikimedia image) |
Another key player in the Lady Eli story was Cherie DeVaux, assistant trainer to Chad Brown, Lady Eli’s trainer. Chad Brown has won five Eclipse Awards for Outstanding Trainer in the United States, and he was devoted to Lady Eli, but the day to day rehab care of the filly fell on the shoulders of Cherie DeVaux.
Over the following years, DeVaux advanced to her own training career, with considerable success. But she never forgot her ordeal with laminitis and Lady Eli. When the chance came to train Lady Eli’s first foal to run in the United States, she added him to her barn at Saratoga.
And she named Lady Eli's son, too: "Dr. Agne" was the name she chose.
• • • • •
Dr. Agne is not just out of one of America’s leading champion racemares; he is sired by Into Mischief, who is the six-time – and reigning – champion sire in the United States. Into Mischief is the sire of the top three-year-old this year, the mighty Sovereignty, who has been on a roll and consecutively won the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, and Travers Stakes.
The colt made his first start at Saratoga on July 11. Like his dam, he has been trained for a career as a turf runner, but the weather had other ideas that day. The turf course was closed, and the race defaulted to the dirt track; it was run at seven furlongs. That turned out to not be a problem for Dr. Agne, even though he may have had to run the race with flat turf shoes on.
He won easily, charging through traffic with his white blaze making him easy to spot. He hit the finish line with steely determination reminiscent of Lady Eli herself.
As if those storybook elements weren’t enough, when Dr. Agne strode into the winner’s circle, he was greeted by the human Dr. Agne's wife, Carrie, who was Cherie DeVaux's guest that day.
• • • • •
Now it's time to do it all again, but on grass. And with more serious competition. On Thursday, Dr. Agne will face tougher opponents and a longer distance, plus he’ll have to do it around two turns. In the saddle will be champion jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., who also rode Lady Eli. Ortiz is currently the leading rider at the Saratoga meet.
You can bet on this horse's story to make you smile and maybe cry at the same time. And those are the best kind of bets you can make on a horse.
Special thanks to the New York Racing Association, publicist Christian Abdo, and Coglianese Photo for their support and assistance at the track.
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| HoofSearch is the monthly report on new peer-reviewed equine lameness research, featuring new hoof science and equine podiatry studies. Click here to visit hoofsearch.com and learn more about this important project. |
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