Just curious. Wouldn’t that be something you would need to disclose to the racing public?
Oy Vey! Not. There have been a number of horses who have raced successfully who have lost an eye. I don’t think they have to announce it in the same way that they announce that a horse has lost his testicles or is pregnant.
Intersting, but not really relevant unless perhaps it’s a first time starter.
Weren’t Pollard’s Vision and Imperialism either one-eyed or blind in one eye, and they raced in the Derby together. I always liked Imperialism.
Storm in May, who ran in the 2007 Derby, is blind in one eye, and it was talked about extensively in the run up to the Derby, but for a regular race with a one-eyed horse, I don’t they announce that information.
Add to that one-time Kentucky Derby contender - Ravel, winner of the Grade 3 Sham Stakes in 2007 who didn’t lose his eye but his sight in one eye due to clod of synthetic track at Santa Anita.
It would seem that racers horses with only one eye will run with their heads turned slightly to compensate for what vision they lost.
Horses I’ve known with only sight in one eye developed the habit of cocking their heads approaching jumps out foxhunting. But my one-eyed tb, who raced over timber that way- never cocked his head. I’d find myself trying to cock his head for him approaching a jump out hunting, and it really pissed hi off!
There are some known and old Standardbreds that were blind in either one eye or both.
Rhythmic
Sleepy Tom
Shanghai Mary
Etawah
Spruce
Ace High
Rosetta M
Woodrow L
Hal Raven
Pal o’ Mine
Jack Woodcliffe
Killbuck Tom
Wanda’s Star
Dottie’s Pick was practically blind in one eye
and more. . . .
There’s a rare diseases in horses known as “moon blindness”.
Another disease cause by face flies is Musca autumnalis.
It’s also quite common for older broodmares (although not racing) to become blind.
On a side note; the USTA Hoof Beats offered a 1994 article on blind caretaker (Billy Pitcock).
I Can See
The recently retired one-eyed California stakes mare, I Can See, used to make some devastating moves between horses. Fun horse to watch.
[QUOTE=imissvixen;4206122]
Just curious. Wouldn’t that be something you would need to disclose to the racing public?[/QUOTE] Doesn’t seem much different from running one with blinders on?
There is a horse by the same sire as my Rasor D named Left Early who was missing one eye as a result of an accident in his very early years; his blue collar racing career was nearly as long as Rasor’s.
There are pregnant horses running? Clearly I haven’t been reading the Form closely enough.
My middle gelding had ovder 50 starts and 8 wins, and only had one eye - appparently he lost it as a foal. He’d race in a closed cup blinker to protect the empty sockety, and would swing wide and run in the middle of the stretch. Sometimes a horse on his outside would catch him, but if they were on his inside, he’d give a hard run.
Dee
We always seem to have one or two mares racing in foal here at MNR (not mine specifically, but here at our track).
They don’t usually announce it “so and so is racing in foal” like they do with blinks on/off or lasix on/off but there is a list posted in the racing office with the names of the mares in foal, last cover date and the covering sire.
Would it be permitted to race a horse who was blind in both eyes? I would think not, but then again I’ve seen some whose blinkers are so closed they might as well be blind!
I haven’t seen a mare race in foal, but there was a mare coming off a 2007 foal racing at Suffolk yesterday (broke well, lead early, was outrun.)
No double blind horses can race.
And like Jessie said, the mares in foal have to be declared in the office. Stud fees have to be paid I think which is contray to many terms where the fee is due when a live foal is born or nurses. We raced two in foal to about their 8th month.
Didn’t Spain run pregnant with her first foal?
Pollard’s Vision
Pollard’s Vision ran in the Kentucky Derby with only one eye—my DH was his pony person for the race!!:lol::lol:
I don’t know what his race name was, but my friend has a gelding (raced as a colt) who was born with one eye. I remember her telling me that his race name was something meaning “one eye” but I can’t recall what it was.
He won a bit, but not enough for stud duties afterwards.
I thought I read somewhere - many, many years ago - that blind horses were required to wear white blinkers w/ a closed cup over the sightless eye to alert the other jockeys - and perhaps the racing public as well - of the blindness.
I remember I heard that around the time Cassiopeia(?) was racing.
White is not a requirement for the blinkers, but closed cup may be. Every one eyed horse I’ve known, with or without an eye or a closed socket, has gone in the closed up.
