I don’t have any definitive knowledge of why they galloped him that morning but would guess that was just their plan. A lot of people gallop the morning of a race so the horse relaxes a bit during the day. I don’t think the vet made them gallop that morning as they can do a lameness exam without it.
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This is where my racing ignorance comes in, so I’m so sorry for the question.
On a “morning of”, is it possible to scratch without it being a vet scratch? I guess with the wording of all the articles that he was “scratched by the vets” I assumed it was possible for him to be scratched by the trainer instead. Can he be scratched by the trainer at that point or does the vet have to declare it? If it is possible for the trainer to scratch, does it go on the vet list either way as a vet scratch?
For those that like following the background/pedigree aspect.
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Yes in stakes races you are paying to be in the race, aka you have a stake in the race so you can just say you don’t want to run and that is that. In a non stakes race which are the vast majority of races you have to put a scratch in by scratch time which is usually a couple of days before the race and the powers that be decide whether to let you out of the race or not. If you are in a claimer for example and you put a scratch in and they say nope, we need you in the race you are in the race. You can choose not to run in that race but they will make your horse ineligible to race for a period of time that also varies by jurisdiction.
This doesn’t mean that had he scratched Forte he for sure wouldn’t have gotten put on the vet’s list. You don’t have to be entered in a race at all to get put on the vet’s list so the fact that everyone knew the horse was off likely wouldn’t have helped. His best shot would have been to scratch as soon as he knew something wasn’t right so he could have potentially gotten off the vet’s list if they put him on it in time to run in the Preakness.
That said, if I had a horse who I knew was sound but bruised a foot galloping I would probably roll the dice and hope that I could get the inflammation out in time to run in the race that trumps all other races too. It’s not like a cracked cannon bone or bowed tendon etc that you have a pretty good idea exactly how long it will take to heal, bruised hooves really can get better overnight.
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This answers my question, I suppose. Having had bruises that have cause lameness to come on fast and furious and then disappear very quickly, I was wondering whether part of the calculus could have been that this is the biggest race and perhaps the bruise would have resolved with poulticing, etc, before Saturday.
Bruises are tough, because sometimes they can progress to abscess or take a long time to resolve, or like the last time my horse had one, can seem like a bad bruise or an abscess and then not blow and resolve without explanation but make themselves known on the next shoeing cycle when you see the evidence on the sole.
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Could it be that he wasn’t necessarily unsound pre-gallop, but was NQR after?
Sure although he wasn’t right on Thursday too.
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Right, but if they did blocks and/or rads and were fairly certain it was a bruise or abscess, they could have been praying for it to resolve by Saturday and were “challenging” his soundness Saturday with a gallop, no?
It could have been any number of scenarios, but yes what you described could be one of them.
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Hoof things can be weird. I remember the farrier asking me, “How long was he lame from this abcess?” Huh? He showed me what he was trimming out. Horse never took a bad step.
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Thanks. As troubled as this Derby Week was, I am not sure galloping a horse with a bruise is at the top of my list of nefarious things as it must be for another poster. Thanks for confirming my suspicion that there could have been a rational reason to do so.
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Take it for what it’s worth but this article calls it a routine soundness exam.
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Horses can be so stoic! And yes, hoof things are weird. My first horse back in the early 90s had maggots dug out during an “abscess resection” and I will never get over it. Current farrier says those maggots may have been a good thing by cleaning out necrotic tissue and other stuff. Shudder…
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It’s not just stoicism, some hoof issues just don’t hurt. My one horse is anything but stoic, yet she will periodically pop abscesses that she never feels. Most abscesses she will be dangling her leg as if it is broken.
When I worked at a university vet hospital, we used “medical maggots” fairly regularly.
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It is crazy how sometimes they act like they are dying and other times you don’t even know.
As for the medical maggots, I will try and tell my now 44-year-old self that the “incidental” maggot finding on my then 12-year-old self’s horse was actually groundbreakingly awesome and not a sign that maybe my hoof care was lacking! It honestly scarred me for life.
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Thank you for the recognition. None of us, except those familiar with Forte and who have worked with him, are aware of the effect galloping might have had on him. Like several of you have shared hooves are weird. There are too many unknowns/variables, such as the track’s condition in the early hours of the morning, the pressure on the hoof, the way the horse was going, and of course, his physical state.
As stated by another poster earlier, I am grateful to the policies they have put in place ensure safety and recovery of horses on the KY Vet List.
I’m sorry, but… what? Thank you for what recognition? That you are posting wildly ridiculous accusations on a horse forum? If so, then… you’re welcome? My point was that there could be valid, non-nefarious reasons for galloping said horse and that bruises are kind of a nothing burger in the grand scheme of things. Your latching on to this particular scratch as some sort of nefarious thing is frankly bizarre. There is plenty to scrutinize over the last week and a half, but I am not sure your fixation on Forte is reasonable.
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Thanks, no one here knows the cause of what happened, and you have NO SCIENTIFIC DATA to say what is more ridiculous or less likely than others to occur. If so, let’s see your data.
Even better, some here are NOT EVEN involved and every opinion is worth the same. In the Grand scheme of things my dear, we are ALL CL: UELESS, and no one is more right or wrong than the other here.
You being clueless is definitely something we can all agree upon. Honestly I am not even sure what you are talking about anymore. We have gone from untestable drugs to you being better than backstretch workers to what?
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Switching back to the topic at hand…I am surprised that Forte’s owner and trainer, both savvy horsemen from my understanding, did not have a strategy on how to scratch the horse given the 14 day state vet hold. I would be surprised that they were unaware of it. I do appreciate the desire to race this horse, but if the state vet was looking likely to force the scratch, I would have scratched myself and not had the 14 days hold.
As many others have said, hoof issues can be ephermal or can last for weeks. I’ve had to scratch from enough horse shows over my lifetime to know.
I just think the trainer and owner made a bad call. They just need to move on and prep for the Belmont, it they chose to enter.
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