That is the question
most asked of any since I started writing this column. It regards last Saturday’s Belmont Stakes
and, more particularly, the odds-on favorite, I’ll Have Another. The
common feeling being, how can a horse on the verge of a rare Triple Crown
opportunity let a little thing like tendonitis not only knock him out of the
race but send him into retirement, for crying out loud?
You’re probably
thinking human beings here. In humans,
tendonitis, meaning inflammation or irritation of a tendon, is very seldom
grounds for retirement. Chronic strain,
overuse or misuse of a tendon leading to a repetitive stress injury, or a
serious acute injury can lead to a weakness, tear or swelling of the tendon
tissue, resulting in pain and stiffness near the tendon. Most of the time, symptoms alleviate after a
couple of weeks, tops. If they do not,
the first step toward correction of the problem is to diagnose the reasons for
the problem and cease performing those tasks which are causing the symptoms. Home treatment options usually include icing,
using over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs and exercise to strengthen the
injured area once symptoms have been reduced.
With horses, it’s
different. Much different. Tendonitis, which was the problem cited with I’ll
Have Another by his connections, usually involves disruption of the tendon
fibers. It is most commonly seen in the
superficial digital flexor tendon in a front leg—the tendon that runs down the
back of the leg, closest to the surface.
Tendonitis is not common in a hindleg.
When the superficial
digital flexor tendon (SDFT) is damaged, there is a thickening of the tendon,
sometimes giving it a “bowed” appearance.
Bows, more often than not, occur somewhere in the middle of the tendon
but can also be higher or lower. After
fibers are torn, the tendon hemorrhages and collects fluid (edema), creating
swelling in the area as well as increasing the pressure resulting in lameness. Once a horse has tendonitis, a bow is only a
matter of time if the horse continues to exercise. The only way to curtail the damage is to stall
the horse and only allow light exercise.
Even then, however, there is minimal chance the horse will return to
compete at the same level as before—if he returns at all. Horses are generally given six months to a
year off after a tendon injury before they are returned to training. The longer the time off, the better the
chances. There are numerous incidences
of horses returning to run well after a
tendon injury. We had a horse named Veer, who suffered a bowed tendon early
in his career, returned, and has now run almost 100 times. This is very rare, however. In the case of I’ll Have Another, already
established as the top horse of his class and likely to be syndicated for
millions of dollars as a stallion, there is no point to soldiering on at the
racetrack where the likelihood is he would not perform at his previous level. It was the right decision.
Star Specter
Of all the problems
racehorses can have short of ones that are life-threatening, bowed tendons are
probably the worst. Not to mention the
most frustrating. Generally, they come
out of nowhere. They happen to horses
which are lightly trained and they happen to horses which are trained to the gills. Though they happen more often in races, they
can crop up after a light morning gallop.
All it takes is one misstep on those spindly legs supporting a thousand
pound body and it’s over. Horsemen try
to reduce the chances of getting bowed tendons by staying away from horses with
long, sloping pasterns and a long-toe, low-heel shape to the hoof, but perfectly
conformed horses get bowed tendons all the time. Blacksmiths are utilized to adjust hoof
shapes that are found wanting. Trainers
are careful to keep young horses off deep, thick footing and to move them along
slowly in their training so they are not asked to perform duties their bodies
are not yet ready to accomplish. Horses
get bowed tendons anyway. It’s an
occupational hazard. As I sadly
discovered with my first racehorse, Star
Specter.
My then-wife, Harolyn
and I waited a long time for Star Specter.
We bought his mother, Bonquill,
at an OBS sale in 1975 for $16,000. She
was in foal to a sire named Star Envoy
whose offspring were expected to get classic distances. She had two foals before we bought her and
almost immediately after the sale the first of them, a filly named Regal Quillo, started winning stakes
races, jumping the mare’s value enormously and giving us reason to expect good
things from the rest of her babies. We
had purchased some land for a farm in Orange Lake but the old grass had been
plowed under and the pastures replanted in Bahia grass so we were boarding
Bonquil and another mare purchase, Time
For School, at the Sleepy Hollow horse farm in nearby Micanopy. And that is where the feisty chestnut colt
was born, after nights of waiting and agonizing
and home movies celebrating the Great Event. Shortly thereafter, the Orange Lake farm was
ready and the horses were transported there.
Star Specter (the baby’s eventual name) may not have been the most
spoiled infant ever but I didn’t see too many other horse owners standing
around their fields holding buckets up to their foals’ chins until they were
through eating. We didn’t want him to
miss any opportunities for growth, however slight, and we succeeded in
growing a large, well-muscled colt and
one with a great personality.
Star Specter learned
his lessons well. When he went into
training, things were easy for him and he sailed right along. Tony Everard, who broke and trained the colt
at Another Episode Farm, promised good things.
When it came time to find a trainer in Miami, we proceeded with more
caution—demanding better references—than the average parent might require for nannies for
his first child. Eventually, we decided
to interview a fellow named Bob Dubois, who was training at Gulfstream
Park. I drove down to Miami, parked in
front of the racetrack gate and slept in my car so I’d be ready bright and
early for my appointment. Unfortunately,
when I woke up in the morning I discovered my lack of knowledge of the city had
caught up with me and I was parked in front of Calder rather than
Gulfstream. I beat it over there in no
time and ended up hiring a trainer.
Star Specter ran for
the first time at Hialeah, a maiden special weights race against tough
competition, and finished a creditable fifth.
I was crushed. More knowledgeable
friends eventually convinced me he ran great, however, and when Dubois and his
string departed to Arlington Park outside Chicago we were certain success was
in the offing. And we were right. After running second his first time out, Star
Specter broke his maiden at a mile in a pouring rainstorm. As we ran down to the winner’s circle, the
sun came out. We went back to our room
at the Holiday Inn overlooking Arlington and called everybody we knew and a few
people we didn’t. Bob Dubois nominated
Star Specter for the Florida Derby.
Alas, twasn’t to
be. In his first start after the maiden
win, Star Specter bowed a tendon at Calder and all the big dreams were
over. We went back to the barn to watch
everyone tend to the horse and when they put him back in his stall, our
brilliant baby ruined at an early age, we drove over to what is now South Beach
and sat silently staring out at the ocean for a very, very long time.
The Race
The Belmont, of
course, went on without I’ll Have Another.
Union Rags, thus far as
unlucky as a three-year-old can get, barely reeled in Bob Baffert’s Paynter at the wire when the latter’s
rider, Mike Smith, allowed Union Rags a slight opening on the rail to nudge
through. But Bill, you never told us
anything about Paynter, you complain.
That’s because we were looking for horses who might possibly upset I’ll
Have Another and I doubted a front-runner could do it, especially at a
mile-and-a-half. I think if the Derby
and Preakness winner had been entered and sound he’d have won by five, but that’s
just me.
The Other Race
The Other Race
If you think the
Belmont was close, you should have seen Cosmic
Crown’s race on the same day at Calder.
She was ahead a stride before the wire and she was ahead a stride after
it. In between, the favorite got her
head down at the right split second and beat her a nose. Irana pointed out that I said I’d be happy
with second, but gee….
Rumbles From The Ghetto Line
Jim Baldauf, prolific
contributor that he is, contributed this one from The Onion the other day. And
no, I am not making this up:
Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New ‘Intelligent Falling’
Theory
August 17, Kansas City, Ks.—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in
public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose
Monday in this embattled Midwestern state.
Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now
asserting that the long-held “theory of gravity” is flawed, and they have
responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.
“Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational
force, but because a higher intelligence, ‘God’ if you will, is pushing them
down,” said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture,
and physics from Oral Roberts University.
Burdett added: “Gravity—which is taught to our children as a law—is founded
on great gaps in understanding. The laws
predict the mutual force between all bodies of mass, but they cannot explain
that force. Isaac Newton himself said, ‘I
suspect that my theories may all depend upon a force for which philosophers
have searched all of nature in vain.’ Of
course, he is alluding to a higher power."
“Let’s take a look at the evidence,” said ECFR senior fellow Gregory
Lunsden. “In Matthew 15:14, Jesus says, ‘And
if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.’ He says nothing about some gravity making them
fall—just that they will fall. Then, in
Job 5:7, we read ‘But mankind is born to trouble, as surely as sparks fly
upwards.’ If gravity is pulling
everything down, why do the sparks fly upwards with great surety? This clearly indicates that a conscious
intelligence governs all falling.”
Like these guys would
know ANYTHING about “conscious intelligence.”
We always wondered why it was
so easy to get into Oral Roberts.
