Can You Name Five Breeders Cup Champions Who Died Because of Laminitis? Can You Name Ten?

It's Breeders Cup weekend and Hoofcare Publishing hopes you are enjoying the spectacle at Churchill Downs, as the world's best racehorses compete for fame and glory and riches. For many, these will be their last races, and the vans will take them straight to Lexington and a new life on a breeding farm on Monday morning. In the meantime, this is their chance to make it into the history books. 

Many who made it into the history books at the Breeders Cup lost their lives prematurely to the terrible disease of laminitis. You may know about Kentucky Derby winners like Secretariat, Sunday Silence, and Barbaro, but many other famous Thoroughbreds couldn't beat the disease, either. And many of them were Breeders Cup champions.

Some great champions lost to laminitis may come to mind: Bayakoa, who won the Breeders Cup Distaff (know called the Ladies Classic) in both 1989 and 1990; Kip Deville who won the Breeders Cup Mile in 2007;  and Sunday Silence, who won the Classic in 1989, and Black Tie Affair who won it in 1991. 

Some whose deaths weren't quite so well publicized but who should not be forgotten are Arcangues, who won the Classic in 1993; Barathea who won the Mile in 1994; Flanders who won the Juvenile Fillies in 1994; Outstandingly who won the Juvenile Fillies in 1984; and In the Wings who won the Turf in 1990.

So there you have at least ten champions. Who knows how many more there may be? All had their greatest moment winning at the Breeders Cup. All probably had their worst moments experiencing the pain of laminitis; most were euthanized because of the disease, to end their suffering.

Each could beat the best racehorses of his or her generation, but couldn't beat laminitis.

Perhaps if you win big on a bet today or maybe if you just dream big of living in a horse world where laminitis is at least manageable and preventable, you'll send a donation in the memory of a fallen champion to a laminitis research charity. 

The Hoof Blog recommends The Laminitis Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

Learn how to make a donation--no matter how large or small--to the Institute by sending an email to Institute administrator Patty Welch: laminitis@vet.upenn.edu 

Learn more about the Laminitis Institute at www.laminitisinstitute.org.

And, if you'd like to mark your calendar, the 6th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot will be in full swing one year from today. The conference returns to West Palm Beach, Florida on November 4-6, 2011. Watch for news at the conference web site:

www.laminitisconference.com.

See you there.

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Rest in Peace: Champion Black Tie Affair Lost to Laminitis

Black Tie Affair, originally uploaded by keiblog.net.

The sad news from Kentucky is that Black Tie Affair was humanely destroyed yesterday. Apparently he had been suffering from laminitis.

Black Tie Affair was Horse of the Year and won the Breeders Cup Classic back in 1991--which seems like just yesterday. He was bred in Ireland, raced out of Chicago, and stood at stud in Japan, among other places.

But he had the good fortune to end up at Old Friends, a retirement for horses outside Lexington, Kentucky. According to their Facebook page, when he arrived at the farm, he suffered terribly from melanoma and arthritis; apparently laminitis was a problem for some or all of the time as well.

Black Tie Affair was one of those horses that inspires his fans. He ran better than you thought he could. He was tenacious. And he was a beautiful gray streak to watch among all the bays and chestnuts on the track, especially that day when he won the Breeders Cup Classic.

I remember that Black Tie Affair was shod by Joe Trhlik at Arlington Park back in the 1990s.

I heard a quote just today and put it on my Facebook page earlier. Little did I know it would come back to haunt me: "A racehorse is an animal that can take several thousand people for a ride at the same time." It's from the soon-to-be-published book, Secretariat's Meadow.

Black Tie Affair took millions of us for a great ride. A ride that ended Thursday. Laminitis did it again.

Thanks to Kate Hunter of Keiblog, one of our Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance affiliates, for posting this amazing (and bloggable) photo of Black Tie Affair. It was taken about three weeks ago at Old Friends.