Possibly the first.....
 

horse to ever win a Graded Stake with a sponge in her nose.

http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=43886

And in other news I forgot to post about earlier today - a first time Steve Asmussen filly won a 75K stake at Delta Downs by 19 lengths last Saturday. Her final time was a second and a half faster than the division for the colts.

Back to the sponge, It's a good thing McLaughlin and those connections aren't the shaddiest people in the game - or they could always say they found one in Daaher and he's being retired from the damages caused by it. However, they'd still have to explain his Fort Erie loss.

Nice to see this story finally seeing the light of day.

shaddiest......as in " most shad like? "

I misremembered how to spell it the right way for you.

There are two b's in shabbiest - there should be two d's in shaddiest as far as I'm concerned.

The strong odor that Golden Velvet’s handlers noticed indicated that the deterioration of the sponge was well under way when the sponge was discovered, the release said. Investigators say there is no way of determining when or where the mare was sponged.



This really sucks. It smelled so bad that bacteria and fungus were giving off a foul odor. Poor animal had to go through that crap. That could have lead to a very bad infection.

By "in other news" do you mean "in related news"?

No.

well I hope her winning anyway cost the a-holes that did that to her a freaking fortune. Too cruel.

If I remember - she looked like she couldn't lose inside the 1/16th pole in that race - and she almost gave the race away with a hang job that would have made Street Cry proud.

If it's true that she ran with a sponge - and it appears to be for sure - in that case it was a brilliant display of heart to not cough away the dominant lead late - and hang on for at least a share of the win.

It will be interesting to see how she runs this weekend.

Does anyone use security cameras in their barns? Cutting off a horses air supply is about as cruel as it gets, but how do you catch these idiots?

That is truly sick.

Good to see you back dude, sorry about your gramps.

I completely agree and what is the solution to stopping this and catching the bums ?

Like Archie Bunker once said,"give everybody in the place a piece(gun)"

I just now see it posted that she got a 100 Beyer. Which is jointly the fastest route Beyer earned by a 3yo of either sex so far this year.

Also - she was obviously excluded from the 23 horses named to Pool 2 in the Kentucky Oaks future book betting. After all, why include a horse who might take some betting money - when you can deftly put a horse who won't take any action in her place.

They remain right on top of things.