The Price is Right: Behind Bob Barker's Million Dollar Smile Are Several Million Dollars of Donations

Are you ready for the media blitz, ad nauseum? The Price Is Right TV game show host Bob Barker is retiring on June 15, after 35 years of hosting the show that you probably have seen only when you were home with the flu. Or maybe you really do know how much that dinette set is worth and want to pit your wits against the TV audience.

Before you throw something at your television throughout all the upcoming tributes to Barker, consider this:

Six of the nation's premier law schools--Columbia, Duke, Stanford, UCLA, Yale and Northwestern--have each been given $1 million endowments to train future animal law attorneys. That $6 million came from Bob Barker, who was here in Boston recently to soeak at the 2007 Animal Law Conference at Harvard Law School.

The new legal study institutes at the Barker-funded universities will help train lawyers to specialize in cases involving animals and provide a resource for lawyers and lawmakers in the field who find themselves involved in interpreting, making or defending laws that affect all animals, including horses.

Harvard received a separate endowment from the producers of TPIR to establish the Bob Barker Endowment Fund for the Study of Animal Rights. The Fund will support teaching and research at the Law School in the emerging field of animal rights law.

Bob Barker heads his own DJ&T Foundation, the purpose of which is to help control the dog and cat population. He funds the foundation's work through his own resources.

Barker made news two weeks ago by donating $300,000 to rescue Ruby, a foot-sore elephant, from her concrete-floored pen at a Los Angeles, California zoo. Thanks to Barker's donation and the publicity it generated, Ruby now lives at the Performing Animal Welfare Society Elephant Sanctuary in San Andreas, southeast of Sacramento. Meanwhile, the LA Zoo has announced construction of a $39 million, six-acre Asian elephant exhibit called the Pachyderm Forest, where elephants will be able to roam more freely, on natural footing.

The final episode of Barker-bedecked TPIR will be broadcast Friday, June 15. The 83-year-old Barker has won 17 Emmy awards, including 13 as TV host, more than any other performer...and is nominated for more this year.

"I'm going for the Featherlite slant, Bob..."

Photo courtesy of the DJ&T Foundation

Amy Tryon Abuse Hearing Date Set for June 25 in Switzerland; Charges and Defense To Be Heard in Injury to Le Samurai at Rolex Three-Day Event in USA

This just in from the FEI:

"In relation to the case of alleged abuse involving rider Amy Tryon (USA) and horse Le Samurai which occurred on 28 April 2007 at CCI 4* Lexington, please be informed that rider Amy Tryon has requested a hearing and in turn, the FEI has scheduled a hearing to be held on 25 June in Lausanne."

Vets in Court: Charges Cleared in Fracture Case; Non-vet Witnesses Testimony Not Relevant

LONDON, ENGLAND (May 31) -- The Disciplinary Committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons last week dismissed a case against a veterinary surgeon having found that her actions during the treatment of an injured horse did not amount to serious professional misconduct.

Margarida dos Santos Correia MRCVS was practising at the Lady Dane Veterinary Centre in Faversham, England at the time of the incident. She was attending a Thoroughbred gelding called Prune that had a puncture wound on his hind leg, causing increasingly severe lameness, swelling and seepage.

The charge faced by Dr Correia was that, having identified that Prune was severely lame in his left hind leg and that it might be fractured, she caused Prune to be transported some 50 miles to a referral centre, without providing adequate physical support.

During the hearing the Committee heard that when Dr Correia first examined Prune, she had not ruled out a fracture, but decided that cellulitis from the puncture wound was more likely. It was alleged by lay witnesses that she did not examine the horse properly three days later and that, prior to transportation, she again failed to palpate the leg properly.

The Committee, however, preferred Dr Correia's evidence that she examined the leg properly on all three occasions; further, it accepted that a lay witness could easily have mistaken stance-related distortion for displacement.

The Committee stated that it was sure there was neither a detectable limb fracture, nor visible distortion to show that a fracture had occurred; it noted the opinion of both expert witnesses that this was not unusual in a non-displaced unicortical fracture and that sometimes, even with the benefit of a radiograph, it could be an impossible fracture to detect. It agreed that Dr Correia's diagnosis of cellulitis was consistent with the symptoms presented at the time.

Professor Derek Knottenbelt MRCVS, expert witness for the RCVS, described the case as a very difficult one for Correia - a "young and relatively inexperienced veterinary surgeon" - to face so early in her career. He stated that, "cellulitis is far and away more common than tibial fracture," adding, "[Correia] made a genuine error of judgment that she is unlikely to make again".

The Committee heard that Dr Correia had spoken by telephone with a senior colleague who had agreed with her diagnosis, but had not been talked through the protocol for transporting a horse so injured. It found it a "matter of great regret" that this colleague did not see fit to examine Prune himself, before allowing him to be moved.

Both experts agreed that transportation in 'Robert Jones' bandages with splints applied by an inexperienced person such as Correia possibly could result in more harm than good. Neither Correia's senior colleague, nor the equine referral clinic, had suggested to Dr Correia that she employ any such protective procedure.

Alison Bruce, chairing the Disciplinary Committee, said: "We wholeheartedly concur with the expert witness for the Respondent, Professor Tim Greet FRCVS, when he concludes in his report that: 'Under such circumstances, it is my opinion that Dr Correia's actions could not, at any time, be construed as demonstrating seriously deficient professional care, nor was her conduct disgraceful in a professional respect.' The case is dismissed."

Secretariat's Nail Head Cast in Silver to Raise Laminitis Research Funds

Secretariat.com has announced a commemorative line of jewelry designed and cast from an original nail from one of the shoes worn by Himself in his superlative 1973 Belmont Stakes performance.

Sales from this jewelry line are earmarked to benefit continued research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine's New Bolton Center towards finding a cure for laminitis, the debilitating and deadly disease that cut short the lives of both Secretariat and 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro.

Each piece in the Belmont Nail Jewelry Series is cast in solid sterling silver from an officially authenticated shoe nail worn by Secretariat during his record breaking 31 length victory to claim the Triple Crown. The nail head sports what I believe is the Izumi starburst pattern, unless there were other nails in 1973 that had star logos on the head.

The original nail - obtained when the champion was re-shod two weeks after the Belmont - was carefully catalogued and preserved until retrieved for casting. The nail jewelry is available in either a satin (shown) or polished finish measuring just over 1.15" in length and comes with a certificate card in its own embossed packaging.

While the original nail was recently valued at more than $6000 (wouldn't you love to know who the appraiser was?), the Belmont Nail Jewelry Series affords racing fans and collectors alike the chance to pay tribute to Secretariat and his historic legacy while combining horse fashion with charitable efforts that can make a difference in the equine world.

View all the many designs sporting the nail fragment at http://secretariatcom.stores.yahoo.net/benaje.html

Now if we could just see the shoes...

Street Sense Won't Run in the Belmont

There will be no third jewel of the Triple Crown for James Tafel's Street Sense after trainer Carl Nafzger announced today that the winner of the Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands and runner-up in the Preakness would skip the June 9 Belmont Stakes to focus on a fall campaign.

"I gave Mr. Tafel all of my reasons for going, and all my reasons for not going," said Nafzger. "The Triple Crown is out - Curlin took us out. We're not going to the Belmont. We have set goals for this horse - we want the Travers and we want the Breeders' Cup Classic. If we can be the first horse to win the [Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup] Juvenile, the Derby, the Travers and the Classic, then Mr. Tafel said these are worthy goals, let's go after it."

Nafzger said that the entire Street Sense camp was "really deflated" after Curlin rallied to edge the Kentucky Derby winner in the memorable Preakness finish. He said that, as sportsmen, both Tafel and he wanted another shot at Curlin in the Belmont - but with no Triple Crown on the line, the option of a fall campaign became more attractive.

"Let's don't chase spilled water," Nafzger said. "We spilled water in the Preakness - we spilled it. We got beat and we got outran. So that's behind us, and our decision now is to regroup."

Nafzger said that Street Sense would remain in "light training" at Churchill Downs before he gears up for the fall campaign, and that the $1 million Haskell Invitational on August 5 at Monmouth Park or the $500,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga would be used as a prep for the Travers later in August in Saratoga. There would be one more prep for the Classic, but Nafzger said "there's a million races for us to choose from" to use as a final prep for the 1 1/4-mile Classic.

(Received via NTRA press release)

UMaine Professor Puts Track Surfaces to the Test

An article in our local Boston Globe newspaper yesterday has been picked up by Associated Press and is seeing ink across the country and over the web. The article profiles University of Maine soil scientist Dr. Mick Peterson and his special studies of racetrack surfaces. Dr. Peterson has a mechanical hoof impact machine and travels to racetracks who suspect changes or defects in the surfaces of racetracks.