Showing posts with label Hoof Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hoof Blog. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

The legacy of a laminitis fighter: Dr. Agne's brave run in a Saratoga stakes race

Dr. Agne, a two-year-old colt out of Lady Eli, is named for Dr. Bob Agne, an equine podiatry vet with Rood & Riddle who treated Lady Eli for laminitis. The coltwill run in the With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga.

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, made his second career start on Thursday, August 28 in the Grade 3 With Anticipation Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Saratoga.

You didn’t have to be a racing fan to want this horse to win at Saratoga today. You just had 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. It wasn't just your average horse race; this colt has a story

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 with a decisive win. Dr. Agne is the namesake of the popular equine podiatry veterinarian Dr. Bob Agne of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, who inspired Lady Eli's team back in July 2015.

 
This video is a feature created by the New York Racing Association's Saratoga Live team 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 and killed by a car on a mountain road.

Dr. Bob Agne lecturing on laminitis at Rood & RIddle Equine Hospital in Kentucky.
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.
Dr. Agne, who worked on the filly with colleague Bryan Fraley, DVM of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Kentucky, would never know that Lady Eli fully recovered and that she would write herself a new kind of black type in the record books–the record books of laminitis, that is. 
 
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), 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.

Champion racehorse Lady Eli was treated for laminitis in 2015.
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.
 
Today's With Anticipation Stakes will be broadcast live on the FoxSports 2 cable network but you can watch it live on the New York Racing Association's YouTube channel. NYRA's stream is the entire day's card, so look for Race 7. Approximate post time is 4:20 pm.


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. 


Lady Eli now lives at Coolmore America's bucolic Ashford Stud in Versailles, Kentucky. The perfect post script to this story is that the equine podiatry team from Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, where Dr. Bob Agne worked, still care for her hooves.


Today he tried to do it all again, but on grass. And with more serious competition. And at a longer distance. And around two turns.  

As if this story couldn't get any warmer or any fuzzier, consider this: Lady Eli is alive and well in Versailles, Kentucky in the deep green pastures of Coolmore America's Ashford Stud. She's busy raising more foals but, ten years after her laminitis, her hooves are cared for there by Dr. Bob Agne's colleagues from the Rood & Riddle Equine Podiatry Center. 

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 could ever make on any horse.

Post Script: Dr. Agne did not win the With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga, but he did come charging late again. It just wasn't enough this time. He finished fourth. But hopefully he'll be back.

Special thanks to the New York Racing Association, publicist Christian Abdo, and Coglianese Photo for their support and assistance at the track.


HoofSearch report on equine podiatry research
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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Friday, January 17, 2025

Summary timeline: What's behind US Equestrian, American Horse Council calls for delay of USDA's new Walking horse soring regulations?


UPDATE: On January 24, the US Equestrian Federation announced that the US Department of Agriculture had indeed pushed back new rules to prevent soring in Tennessee walking horses and similar breeds until April 1, 2025. The article below describes the background to this decision. 

Since then, however, sweeping changes in Washington, DC have affected many cabinet agencies, and are expected to impact the USDA. Whether these changes will impact the APHIS horse inspection program remains to be determined.

Readers in the USA may be aware that long-anticipated changes to the federal Horse Protection Act are scheduled to go into effect on February 1. These new rules change the way that Tennessee Walking horses will be inspected at horse shows, and by whom, in an effort to prevent deliberate "soring" practices to enhance gait.

If only it was that easy.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Donor's gift makes equine laminitis research center a reality at US vet school


A strategic collaboration between donor Nancy Link and Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) will facilitate the establishment of the Nancy Fair Link Laminitis Research Center at the university. The partnership will also include recruitment of top faculty charged with advancing pioneering research in the prevention and treatment of laminitis.

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital opens doors for International Equine Podiatry Conference April 18-20, 2024


Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky will host the third International Equine Podiatry Conference.


The doors to the forge are always open at the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Someone is always going in or out, and the equine podiatry clinic is a favorite stop on every hospital tour. But from April 18-20 this year, the doors will open even wider to welcome attendees to the hospital's third International Podiatry Conference. 

Attendees should expect to roll up their sleeves, buckle their aprons, and spend two days in a stimulating state-of-the-art treatment and diagnosis center where the highly-trained staff looks expertly -- and exclusively -- at the equine hoof. A registration at this conference guarantees that the motivated participants can and will get their hands dirty and their questions answered.

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Meet University of California at Davis new veterinary hospital farrier Ian Davies



Ian Davies, DipWCF is hard at work in his new job.

The British-born and British-educated farrier has joined the University of California School of Veterinary Medicine Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in Davis, California. The vet school welcomed Ian to his new position yesterday.

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Prevent laminitis: Wellness Ready stallside insulin tests accelerate Equine Metabolic Syndrome diagnostics


We all know horse owners who can recite entire pedigrees, race records, or a lifetime of judges' scores. But veterinarians and farriers would prefer that owners have the history of their horses’ insulin test results on the tips of their tongues. 

A new stallside diagnostics tool called Wellness Ready provides real-time equine insulin levels from a simple blood test kit; it is now available to veterinarians around the world. With its growing use for horses of all breeds and ages, laminitis prevention is taking a big stride forward.

Farriers at the Herning 2022 FEI World Championships: Who was minding the forge?



Last week's ECCO FEI World Championships in Herning, Denmark, made farrier history when the event entered into an agreement with Mustad Hoofcare Group, who became the FEI's first  "Official Farrier Service Partner" by providing a crew of its own farriers for Herning2022. With more than 1,000 horses on the grounds, farriers were a priority service.

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

New HISA racing rules for Thoroughbred horseshoe traction to begin July 1 in USA

New HISA rules for raceplate traction in USA

New federally-mandated racing safety rules from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority will be introduced "feet first" this summer. The first new rules are primed to take effect on July 1 at U.S. racetracks. 

A change to how American Thoroughbreds may be shod, including what shoes they can wear, is key to the new rules, limiting the use of shoe traction devices with one national rule for the entire United States.

Thursday, July 29, 2021

The Olympic Hoof: Therapeutic plastic horseshoes helped two US dressage silver medal horses in Tokyo

horseshoes at the Tokyo Olympics 2020
Horseshoes, like Olympic medals, can be made from different metals. But this week in Tokyo, the world saw that they can also be made of plastic...and help bring home a medal.

For Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics this year, dreams are made of gold, silver, and bronze. But for two horses, those dreams had a plastic lining, although you might not know it unless you happened to see the bottom of their hooves.

Thursday, July 22, 2021

The Olympic (Laminitic) Hoof: Dressage horse diagnosed with laminitis before competition begins

A dressage horse representing South Africa has been withdrawn from the Olympics after developing laminitis at the Olympic Equestrian Center outside Tokyo. (Hoofcare.com file photo; this is not the horse described in the article.)

It's been a long road to Tokyo for the world's Olympic equestrian competitors. They've faced Covid lockdowns worldwide, an Equine Herpes Virus outbreak in Europe, Brexit horse transport regulation changes in the United Kingdom, and floods just miles from the quarantine center in Aachen, Germany. 

But for one rider, the challenges are just beginning: Her horse, expected to compete in dressage on Saturday for South Africa, has been diagnosed with laminitis at the equestrian center outside Tokyo.

Tuesday, May 04, 2021

Renate Weller appointed vet school dean at University of Calgary

Renate Weller, an educator and leader in the equine veterinary field in Europe, will become the new Dean of the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Canada this September.


Well-known veterinary educator and researcher Renate Weller, Dr Med Vet, PhD, MScVetEd, FHEA, NTF, DipACVSMR, MRCVS will accept a new challenge in September when she adds Canada to the countries she has called home. Professor Weller will soon be known as Dean Weller as she assumes leadership of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary (UCFVM) in Alberta, Canada.

Monday, May 03, 2021

Message to Hoof Blog readers and email newsletter subscribers


Hoofcare Publishing will be back at work and publishing from the "real" office in town soon. In the meantime, some changes are coming to improve the delivery of your email newsletter and headline alerts.

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Remembering Britain's Prince Philip and the Quick-Thinking Farrier

Prince Philip's brush with danger at the 2013 Royal Windsor Horse Show has almost been forgotten but it could have ended quite differently. A quick-thinking farrier was the hero that day.
Prince Philip's brush with danger at the 2013 Royal Windsor Horse Show has almost been forgotten but it could have ended quite differently. A quick-thinking farrier was the hero that day.


The sound of the bagpipes and boatswain's whistles is fading, but the funeral of Great Britain's Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, will remained etched in our minds as a tasteful, dignified farewell to an international icon of both monarchy and the horse world.

Prince Philip was, of course, an avid and exuberant competitive carriage driver, as well as polo player and long-time president of Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI), the global governing body of equestrian sport.

What I'll remember, however, is a horse show mishap that could have ended quite differently.

Sunday, January 10, 2021

Monday, January 04, 2021

For Auld Lang Syne: New York's forgotten landmarks of hoof history



I have always wanted to organize a tour of New York City for horse and hoof history, but this might be as close as I can come until life gets back to normal.  Consider this a warmup, inspired by the New Year's Eve traditional celebration in Times Square. 

This article will cover midtown landmarks -- or "hoofmarks", as I call them -- around Times Square and Central Park.

Tuesday, June 09, 2020

Barefoot by the Numbers: Swedish Standardbred trotters are faster without shoes, but risk breaking gait


Researchers at Sweden's University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) at Uppsala have analyzed the performance records of trotting Standardbreds based on varied configurations of fully shod,  front or hind shoes only, or without shoes entirely. 

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Video abstract on Equine Metabolic Syndrome in Welsh ponies and Morgan horses wins prize at BEVA Congress



Veterinarians have been upgrading their skills at both communicating information about their research and in making their research more accessible to the public. Laminitis prevention is an area that is in critical need of more outreach. Navigating the literature on laminitis research can be confusing and overwhelming.

At last week's British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) Congress in England, the Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ) gave an award for video interpretation of equine research. The video abstract they presented is remarkable on two counts: The winning author is an American, and the subject is laminitis prevention and education of horse owners.