Thanks for sharing.
I expected a statement like this. It makes sense; we hold thousands of other horses to this same standard.
But it does give me pause as to whether we should re-evaluated our standard for horses with pre-existing conditions. This is not a new thought for me; it’s something I’ve been mulling over for years. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but years ago (probably over a decade ago), some crackpot poster came on here saying he could predict all breakdowns. He had a complicated spreadsheet that basically included dozens upon dozens of different “risk factors.” The hilarious part was that all the “risk factors” were part of every day racehorse life; most were unavoidable. None of them could be used to predict a breakdown because they basically encompassed every thoroughbred on the planet. We all laughed at his list and ran him off. But a few of his alleged “risk factors” stuck in the back of my mind. Every now and then, something like this happens and I wonder if they would be worth revisiting.
But I’m just rattling random thoughts here…
I was under the impression that Pletcher was talking about the rash of breakdowns that had happened this year, and not Mongolian Groom specifically. That was what I replied to.
So he tied up, which is why it was hard to tell if it was his left or right hind, since it was both.
"Baker–Mongolian Groom’s veterinarian since the horse arrived in California over two years ago, he said–told the TDN via telephone Wednesday that the horse “tied-up” after the workout, and afterwards, was muscle-sore along his back, catching the attention of regulatory veterinarians from the Breeders’ Cup, Santa Anita and the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB).
“The regulatory group, including the Breeders’ Cup, watched him train on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and on Thursday they said, ‘now, he’s completely normal,’” said Baker, who added that the horse was given the green light to race by the “best pre-race veterinarians” in the country.
“Every day they watched him on the track, and then they came back to the barn and checked him,” said Baker, who described Mongolian Groom as a “low-maintenance” horse, in terms of veterinary intervention, throughout his career."
i agree wholeheartedly with Todd Pletcher
Thanks for the explanation.
@Laurierace , thanks for the link to that article. First I’ve seen from this viewpoint. What was said makes perfect sense to me including that Mongolian Groom was gone over with a fine tooth comb many times in the days leading up to the Classic. Also more of an explanation of this type of injury as, IMO, it didn’t follow the normal course of a catastrophic breakdown (ie, hind rather than fore leg).
“We know from that type of injury to the pastern, it is not a pre-existing problem–it is an acute injury,” said Baker, who added that Mongolian Groom had shown no prior problems or unsoundness issues at the site of the catastrophic breakdown. “It is an acute twisting injury–a typical turf injury, where a horse puts a foot into the surface and they twist on it but there’s no give.”
Sounds also like the delay gave the vet time a chance to not only evaluate the severity of the fracture but also assess blood flow below the injury prior to the decision to euthanize.
Natalie Voss’ article: https://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/breeders-cup-mum-on-mongolian-grooms-exam-history/
She is one of the very few objective and thorough journalists out there. That Lameness Locator is cool.
https://equinosis.com/lameness-locator-science-making-stride-in-equine-lameness-evaluation/
What they don’t mention is how oftentimes a catastrophic injury can come from an alteration in the gait when a horse is favoring something. Like they don’t want to dig in completely with the left front so they dig in even more with the right front and that leg gives way. It can be diagonal pairs as well like left front is hurting and the right hind goes. Any time you change the way any part of the body is moving it effects everywhere else.
IIRC, two of the items on the crazy list of breakdown predictors were an incident of tying up within the past XX days (can’t remember what exactly) and history of back soreness, which is why the MG article triggered memories of that list. And going along completely with what you said, both of those things could affect load-bearing on the limbs, which could dramatically increase the risk of catastrophic injury despite being “sound.”
I think vets’ willingness to exclude things like back pain and a recent incident of tying up from consideration of overall soundness is a symptom of a bigger problem with medicine that extends far beyond racing. All of medicine (veterinary and human) has departed from viewing the patient as a whole and instead is hyperfocused on treating symptoms. Treat the back pain, treat the horse for tying up, and be done with it. It’s the same with humans-- run a test, give a drug to address whatever is awry in the test, or send them to a specialist. Very few doctors stop to look at how the problem relates to the entirety of the patient.
Will be interesting to see what, in specific, Dr Bramlage’s investigation turns up WRT Mongolian Groom. So many possibilities of how this injury could have happened and why was or was not something seen in the days leading up to the race.
BH has an article on a study of the EID over the last 10 years that will add bute as a risk factor for catastrophic breakdowns. Probably a non-issue in CA but will call for zero tolerance on race-day.
That was interesting although I agree that it likely had less to do with giving bute and more to do with needing bute for something which goes back to the altering the gait thing we were talking about above.
This I would agree with… not bute in of itself but in masking pain that may result in a stressed skeletal system. The article does start by staying that bute increases the risk factor and should result in zero tolerance for bute on race-day.
Thanks for the article, there are some interesting statistics:
"While there’s no way to break out a single change to measure impact in California, which besides overhauling its medication rules also put in safety measures such as additional pre-race exams, catastrophic breakdowns during racing have been greatly reduced under the new standards. Since Santa Anita reopened March 29 and through the Los Alamitos Race Course, Del Mar, and Santa Anita fall meet that followed, the equine fatality rate in Southern California has been 1.09 per 1,000 starts. Based on Equine Injury Database numbers, that 1.09 rate is 35% lower than the rate for the United States and Canada in 2018 of 1.68.
During the time period the zero-tolerance policy has been in place in California, the average starters per race in Southern California is 7.13, down from the 7.62 average at these tracks in 2018. Again, in terms of determining impact, it’s difficult to break out a single change from the many new rules and protocols put in place in California this year.
The study also provided some insight on the always-hot topic of race-day Lasix (or Salix). The South American study found no link between Lasix use and breakdowns. Zambruno noted that one of the racecourses in the study prohibited bute but allowed Lasix, administered by regulatory vets. In looking at numbers for that track, the study found no correlation between Lasix and breakdowns.
My thoughts, too.
Bute has been around for a really long time. It came into prevalence in the late 1940s I believe. While rules against its use in competition came about almost immediately, we couldn’t regulate it because we couldn’t reliably test for it until much later; sometime in the 1960s I believe. I know by the late 1960s they had their first DQ from the Kentucky Derby for a bute overage.
My point of all this is that if there is a direct correlation between use of the NSAID itself and breakdowns, we’ve been running and training horses on it for over 70 years. Its use certainly wouldn’t explain any recent spikes in injuries (Santa Anita, etc.), unless it is interacting negatively with other medications we use today.
The Lameness Locator was put on my mare on one of her trips to Purdue (free of charge, due to my frequent flier miles… ha!). It was really neat to see the data it produced.
