Agree with all, and I was under the impression that periosteal stripping (what @Kasey calls “altering with pins or shims”) was a largely discontinued practice in terms of its being done to correct leg conformation in a baby destined for the sales.
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It is so fortunate that you worked for farms that never suggested or implemented pins or shims. You can believe as you choose. Denise Martin put out a statement for breeders saying that California Chrome was not altered in any way. His conformation is natural. After all crooked legs are a hard sell.
What therapeutic drugs did California Chrome run with in his system? None of these drugs have been listed as used on California Chrome in the CHRB minutes or articles in main stream media. I am unsure where your information about California Chrome having been on therapeudic medications come from. A few references would be much appreciated. The Coburn’s prided themselves on California Chrome the clean horse.
It came from you.
WTF? I can believe as I choose? Where did you work on a TB farm that altered horses for conformation for the sales? How many yearlings did you prep? As I said - I NEVER had heard of that being done aside from support for assorted reasons. Not on any farm I had any association with. And certainly NOTHING was done to change any conformation - @Mara is right. Why would Denise Martin - who you seem to think is the great oracle of racing - suggest that foals were “altered” as a matter of course? It is the same kind of sour grapes that the other great oracle - Steve Coburn - showed after the Belmont with his sad rant. Poor Chrome deserved better people.
You already said that Chrome ran on Lasix - which can be therapeutic. I made no claim about anything else - you just jumped all over that in a very prickly Coburn-like way - just as some of the most overwrought and dramatic Chromies would. And what exactly are YOU talking about when it comes to “therapeutic medications”?
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The poster you are responding to believes that “stewards” take owners horses and give them to trainers to settle unpaid training bills “all the time” in America.
No amount of explanation that it doesn’t work that way will change that “belief”.
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Just want to back up @smoofox. I also managed a major TB farm (top 3 KY consignor) back in 2010-11 and had 45 yearlings in my care to prep. I also worked in the office each fall and saw all the vet paperwork for the other several hundred yearlings we had in September from 2008-11. Procedures were rare, NOT the norm.
One major farm (now not in existence) would routinely do hooks and wires on joints of their foals/weanlings. But they were an exception, not the rule. There was a rare instance of placing a screw in a knee to help straighten a growth plate; not simply to “bring more money” but to possibky help the horse move straighter, hit the ground evenly and stay sound at speed.
It is not unusual to perform surgery to remove a chip or OCD lesion in the spring, so the sales xrays in September look as good as possible. This is not “straightening crooked legs.” It is a procedure to allow the horse its best chance at a sound, successful career. And this surgery is FULLY DISCLOSED in the repository at the sale; it is not hidden or unknown in any way.
However, good farrier care is #1 at all times to help balance the limbs, starting at 3 weeks of age. By the time the horse is a yearling, a good farrier isn’t going to change much; it is what it is. There is no “secret sauce” or magic formula behind 6 and 7-figure yearlings. Good feed, good care, good management, exercise and turnout. That’s it.
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Perhaps you should re-read the post.
Your words, quoted.
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Exactly right. The ugly duckling filly I mentioned earlier (her barn name when she was little was Moose) was just a 4 figure yearling. What she lacked in beauty, she made up for with personality. But as she grew, she came together. If not exactly a swan, at least a happy duck…
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May 28 is a very special date indeed. Congrats. California Chrome.
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Looks as if they’ve dropped her down in class where she has a better chance to win.
Nothing wrong with that, but isn’t this the best he has, so far, out of his first crop?
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The Chromies are going berserk with “I told you so!!” and proving once more they know next to nothing about breeding.
Case in point is the statement that “Chrome needs to be in the US diversifying our very inbred bloodlines”. As if the Seattle Slew-AP Indy-Pulpit sire line is in danger of disappearing and is only salvageable via the son of a mediocre sire. Tapit who? 
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I stay off those groups LOL
They are all wacked
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Martin Racing Announces Passing of Co-Founder Denise Martin
For Immediate Release: June 15, 2021For Information, Contact:
Lisa Groothedde • (626) 340-8695
(Perry & Denise Martin Photo Credit: Perry Martin Jr.)lisa@thoroughbredinfo.com
Alpine, Wyoming — It is with great sadness that Martin Racing announces the passing of Denise Martin, the co-founder, and heart, of Martin Racing, a Thoroughbred and Standardbred breeding and racing organization based in Alpine, Wyoming, with global equine holdings. The accomplished chemist, business leader, horse owner and mother to two died on June 14 at 61.
With her husband and co-founder, Perry, serving as the public voice and operations manager for Martin Racing, Denise took on the critical role of managing all communications and behind-the-scenes business needs for the small, family-owned organization, which was founded in 2016.
The Martins were thrust into worldwide fame in 2014, when their wildly popular and charismatic colt California Chrome won the Kentucky Derby (G1) and the first of his two Eclipse Award titles as North America’s Horse of the Year. The California-bred superstar, whom the Martins co-bred and initially raced in partnership with another couple under the stable name Dumb Ass Partners, also won the 2016 Dubai World Cup (G1) and eight additional graded stakes races before he retired in 2017 with earnings of $14,752,650 — a North American record at the time.
California Chrome’s storybook success enabled Martin Racing to expand internationally. In addition to supporting their first homebred via stallion syndicate participation, originally in Kentucky and now in Japan, the Martins currently stand Thoroughbred stallions in California, Louisiana and Wyoming and the Hambletonian-winning Standardbred sire Trixton in Canada.
Their homebred colt Mo Mosa won Lone Star Park’s Steve Sexton Mile Stakes (G3) on May 31.
“Denise greatly enjoyed interacting with racing fans, whether she communicated with them in person or through California Chrome’s official social media channels,” said Perry Martin. “She also was solely responsible for all of Martin Racing’s charitable giving endeavors.”
A trained chemist and California State University graduate, Denise was CEO of Martin Testing Labs in Sacramento, California, from its creation in 2000 to its sale in June 2020. She previously worked for the United States Air Force as a civilian employee at McClellan Air Force Base.
In semi-retirement, the Chicago native served her adopted Wyoming community on the North Alpine Water District Board of Directors. She also recently began taking online university courses on Astronomy, and was building a telescope to view the clear Wyoming night sky.
Denise is survived by her loving husband of 35 years, Perry, her daughter Kelly Martin, her son Perry Martin Jr., her brothers Andrew Brudniak and Richard Brudniak, her Golden Retriever Tizzy, 76 Thoroughbred horses and seven Standardbred horses. She was loved by all of them.
Martin Racing, PO Box 2988, Alpine, Wyoming 83128 www.MartinRacing.us
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3 year old Da Chrome was euthanized on May 29th after fracturing both sesamoids in a race at Pimlico.
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What a shame about Denise’s passing and Da Chrome.
I never knew that the Martin’s had Standardbreds too. Trixton is a very nice trotter.
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Cilla won the Prioress Stakes (Grade 2) at Saratoga yesterday.
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California Angel, 2 yr old California Chrome filly, just won her debut.
Definitely ran green, but gets there in the end.
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