Track Vets Irritated by Congressional Hearing Charges; Protest Lack of Reprsentation on Panel

Veterinarian Phil Tripp, left, with assistant Alfonso Quintero, work at the Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky. Photo by Bill Luster, The Courier-Journal; story link below.

"Ouch!" "Zing!" "Wham-o!"

Racetrack veterinarians were under the gun last week at the Congressional sub-committeee hearing on racetrack drug abuse and breakdowns. Reading the transcript makes it clear that owners and trainers were seeking to place some of the blame for the problems in horse racing on the shoulders of racetrack vets.

To paraphrase one recent comment by a racetrack old-timer: "Years ago we had twice the horses and half the vets. Now we have half the horses and twice the vets."

Racetrack veterinarians have always had a separate reality. Unlike most veterinarians, they are bound by laws and rules and have to be pharmacologists to know how long a medication will remain in a horse's system, what the allowed levels are, and what the implications may be of a horse shipping to a different state where laws may not be the same. Ever wonder how it's possible to stable fillies and colts next to each other on the shedrow? Ask the vet.

There are two types of veterinarians at the track: practicing vets and regulatory vets, who are employed by the racing jurisdiction, usually the state. In addition to tasks related to testing horses for illegal or excessive medication, veterinarians inspect horses before races, interact with stewards, and work double-duty when an outbreak of herpes virus or strangles shuts down a track.

Consider this quote from the Washington hearing: owner Jess Jackson told the subcommittee that in Seabiscuit's day there were three veterinarians at Santa Anita and all drove Chevrolets, compared with perhaps 26 today who "all drive BMWs and Cadillacs now". (I didn't realize Mr. Jackson was old enough to remember Seabiscuit.)

Veterinarians at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky found a willing ear in reporter Jenny Rees of the Louisville Courier-Journal. Her compilation of their comments and more hits against track vets formed a feature story in today's paper. Read it here.

It seems like blame for everything in the horse world is like a big game of Tag. This month, track vets are It. Tomorrow it could be you, or me. Big Blame keeps getting passed around and around; where it stops, nobody knows.

Favorite Photos: Which Way'd He Go?

horse hoofs, originally uploaded by Miss-D80.

(I don't know that the horse had five legs; the one of the left is probably from a teammate. And a family member, by the looks of it.)

Which side of the right front shoe do you think he wears down most? I bet most Hoofcare and Lameness readers could draw a picture of what the bottom of this horse's right front looks like.

Draft horses are amazing. I think this is a draft horse, or possibly a Friesian. They often endure bad shoeing, no shoeing, lousy confirmation, cracked feet, ringbone, sidebone...and just keep going.

Thanks to Miss D80 for the loan of her photo!

Favorite Photo: The Magnificent Shire of Shoes

Now here's something I haven't seen before. This Shire is crafted from hundreds of horseshoes by retired Yorkshire, England businessman Donald Punton. Click here to learn more about him and the horses he builds. I think the blaze and feathers paint is really clever, although I am not sure if the body and legs are painted or just rusted!

Bring on the Bulldozers: Santa Anita Will Install Brand New Artificial Surface for Breeders Cup in October

The continuing education of racetrack management continues this summer, as a full card of bulldozers will break through the gate of lovely Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, California. The learn-as-you-go plan is to completely replace the year-old Cushion Track artificial surface with a brand new Pro-Ride surface from Australia.

The Cushion Track surface was installed over questionable drainage systems and malfunctioned this winter, cancelling racing on several days when the winter rains hit the track east of Los Angeles.

Santa Anita Park announced today that its main track will undergo a complete overhaul beginning July 14, and will be reconstituted with a mixture of Pro-Ride synthetic. The project will include completely removing the existing asphalt base, adding a new grid base material, and treating the entire track with binder and fiber. It is anticipated the complete project will take six weeks to complete. During this period of construction, there will be no training at Santa Anita.

Santa Anita’s new Pro-Ride synthetic surface will debut with the beginning of the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting on Sept. 24. The 25th Breeders Cup will be run at Santa Anita October 24-25; it will be the first time that the Breeders Cup has been run on an artificial surface.

Racing officials and hierarchy are putting lots of faith eggs in the artificial surface basket, with permanent installations completed this year at all major California tracks, joining Keeneland and Turf Paradise in Kentucky and other tracks around the country in the experimental switch from dirt to fiber. The hope is that the surface will be safer for horses and more consistent.

Several Breeders Cup races are run on the turf and will not be affected by the surface switch.

Hoof-La Update from Dutrow: "It Still Wasn't the Loose Shoe"

Smoking Gun? The article in this week's Blood-Horse about Big Brown's loose shoe in the Belmont, shown in this closeup from a Russ Melton photo, has now been posted on the web; you can read the entire article by clicking here.

Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow is sticking to his guns: the "loose shoe" is not the smoking gun in his horse's failure to capture the 2008 Triple Crown on June 7th. He was interviewed by the Blood-Horse when they decided to publish the photo you see with this post. (See following posts for more on loose shoes.)

Dutrow added that the shoe appeared to have spread and that it was pulled, along with his other shoes, the next day. His horseshoer still had to use his pulloffs to get the shoe off, so "loose" is a relative term. He also said that there was no pain reaction when the foot has worked on.

Dutrow also verified farier Tom Curl's report that Big Brown is now shoeless and jogging at Aqueduct, presumably enjoying a rest from all the hoof-la that attended his Triple Crown lameness issues.

Also, the toe grab in this photo is completely legal in New York. No states that I know of have banned toe grabs on hind feet. The Jockey Club's model rule change suggests toe grabs other than wear plates be eliminated on front shoes but there are no rule changes suggested for hind shoes, where toe grabs are standard equipment.

What Can a Loose Shoe Do? Remember Longfellow!

There's an expression, "Safe and Sound" that can be extended to the work that horseshoers do for their four-legged clients. They believe that they put on shoes to help horses run faster, jump better, raise their knees more (or keep them lower), to get traction on ice or on a smooth turf-y jump course.

But they also do their very best to make them safe. They check the nails. They check for loose clinches. They come back for a hot nail. They rasp off any sharp edges. You might think they are making it look pretty, but what they are really doing is keep that sound horse safe out there on the road, track, course, field, or arena.

One of the very most famous stories of a horse with a loose shoe in a race goes back to 1872. The great champion Longfellow was to run in the 2.5 mile Saratoga Cup against a longtime rival, a horse called Harry Bassett.

The 1872 New York Times record of the race begins with this dramatic sentence: SARATOGA, July 16. Never, perhaps, in the racing history of the Saratoga or any other track has such a scene been witnessed as took place today the scene attending the race between Longfellow and Harry Bassett.

On the way to the post, Longfellow's shoe came loose. The race was off, and at the halfway point, he lagged uncharacteristically behind. His jockey went to the whip; it was the first time the champion had ever felt its sting. He accelerated and almost caught his rival; he lost by only a length, and the record was broken for that distance.

When Longfellow pulled up, it was on three legs. The loose shoe had bent over double and was embedded in his frog. One report said he had puled off the heel of his foot. He had kept on running, and almost won. But he never raced again.

Of course, Longfellow's shoes were steel and Big Brown's are a very lightweight aluminum alloy. But that story does drive home the lesson that a loose shoe is a dangerous situation.

Big Brown's shoe was obviously loose...but not that loose. He was lucky. And today, a jockey would be wont to pull up a horse before the damage was done, but go to the whip as they did in 1872.