um no. but I think its unfair to say that veterinarians out of vet school are clueless or its unfair to look at a young vet and classify their experience based on their looks. Maybe those young vets hired by the breeders cup have been working under the wings of very specialized vets in their respected fields and are very reputable. A vet doesn’t need to be 50+ years old to know what they are doing. Don’t be short sighted.
The vets hired by the breeders cup to assess horses were done so for a specific job. To look over every horse entered in the field knowledgeably and with experience to make educated decisions on whether or not the horse could race. The breeders Cup went into Santa Anita knowing that they had a lot on the line. The fate of racing in California might be resting on what occurred at the Breeders Cup. Said vets are looking over some of the highest valued horses in the industry. Why on earth do you think they would hire regular joe from the local animal hospital to look them over.
Despite the above; the vets assessing the horses are not the issue. They did their job and they did it well. Several horses were vet scratched for soundness issues that were found.I cant speak to why MG grooms unsoundness at the jog on the track was not seen. Its obvious in the video. But its too late to rewind now.
Does no one want to address Aiden O’Briens comments after one of his was vet scratched? “She jogged up just as she always does. But we have to play by the rules here”. So does he not want to address the fact that his horse had a soundness issue at the jog that was obvious enough for a group of vets to concur that she was unsound? Or does he just want to throw shade that the vets scratched his horse and he thinks otherwise about her condition? Trainers are NOT vets. I would hope that Aiden would return to his stable and have a full workup done on the horse to ensure her health and well being. He should be thankful a group of trained professionals saw something perhaps he didn’t and could’ve saved her life on race day. This is the type of attitude the industry does NOT need considering the current climate in the United States around the fatalities and the current climate that the Breeders Cup was trying to emulate at their event. The horse should be paramount, always.
No one wants to address how many starts MG made this year and whether or not that strain put on his skeleton combined with training ultimately caused his demise.
Instead we want to point fingers at 30 hired Veterinarian professionals because they simply look like they are young which apparently means they are inexperienced/ dumb/ clueless. This message board continues to prove that those within the industry are operating with sunglasses on. Until you start looking internally at potential causes for the fatalities piling up (not just at Santa Anita, but nation-wide), nothing will change. Don’t put the blame on the 30 educated equine veterinarians tasked by the Breeders Cup with ensuring said horses are safe to walk in the starting gate. As far as I’m concerned; the breeders cup is footing the bill for vets to cover what trainers back in the barn should already be doing with their veterinarians before their horse enters the starting gate. Some do. But not all.
I see horses on CANTER sale videos every week that are dead lame in a leg and their equibase charts show them still training throughout the week and still racing. Why is that? Why is a dead lame horse at the jog still racing and training throughout the week? I agree with @ASB Stars that horse racing should certainly be just as stringent regardless of the level of the horse.