HASKIN: Expect Animal Kingdom status news today..

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

His stumble reminded me of Afleet Alex's who may've gone on to win the Belmont but I believe they suspected the Preakness incident led to the injury that eventually forced his retirement. Maybe discovering it before AK runs again means he won't have had a chance to make it worse, and his career will continue.

That's quite a diagnosis doctor.

[RolloTomasi]

Afleet Alex's arthritic ankle was likely the result of his unorthodox, yet much ballyhooed, "twice a day" training regimen, as a opposed to a single incident like the stumble.

If any one thing sent him to the shed with a bullet, it was the ridiculous 5f in :59+ he endured in his first work back, a mere 60 days after having a screw inserted in his cannon bone.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Afleet Alex's arthritic ankle was likely the result of his unorthodox, yet much ballyhooed, "twice a day" training regimen, as a opposed to a single incident like the stumble.

If any one thing sent him to the shed with a bullet, it was the ridiculous 5f in :59+ he endured in his first work back, a mere 60 days after having a screw inserted in his cannon bone.

Don't contradict the resident Vet.

[TouchOfGrey]

Dr. Dean Richardson of the New Bolton Research Center examined a nuclear scan June 15, which indicated that something was amiss with the colt's left hock. On Thursday, both Dr. Richardson and Dr. Larry Bramlage of Rood & Riddle Veterinary Clinic in Lexington, examined radiographs of the hock and discovered a small fissure on the tip of the cannon bone where it joins the lower part of the hock.

The injury is thought to have occurred at the start of the June 11 Belmont Stakes (gr. I) when Animal Kingdom was bumped by Mucho Macho Man, causing him to clip heels with another horse and stumble badly while nearly unseating jockey John Velazquez. New York stewards on June 15 handed down a seven-day suspension to jockey Rajiv Maragh for careless riding for initiating the incident. Maragh was riding Isn't He Perfect, who appeared to come over on Mucho Mach Man right after the break, which caused the chain reaction that led to Animal Kingdom’s near fall.

“It's not a major thing,” said Dr. Bramlage. "I agree with Dr. Richardson that the best course of action is to keep the colt inactive for two weeks and radiograph the leg again. In two weeks it should settle down and he should be sound again. I don't think it is going to separate, but that would be the worry.

“Right now it is a tiny crack and technically you could call it a fracture. But I would characterize it as more of a fissure because of how small it is. He lit up pretty good on the nuclear scan. Normally, no matter how hard a horse hits his leg on the ground in an accident, there is not enough force to show this type of uptake on the scan for a period of at least 10 days. This tells me that, like a lot of racehorses, he probably had a little something going on in there that he was dealing with. But when he hit the ground with such force in the accident, he overloaded the bone and this is the result.

“The good news is that this should not cost him the entire season. I would hope that he would be able to return to training in a matter of weeks.”

Read more: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...#ixzz1PTWg1lKC

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Afleet Alex's arthritic ankle was likely the result of his unorthodox, yet much ballyhooed, "twice a day" training regimen, as a opposed to a single incident like the stumble.

This doesn't make much more sense to me than asserting that Premier Pegasus's injury or Uncle Mo's health problems are due to them NOT galloping twice a day. Trying to find cause/effect is pretty tricky business.

Originally Posted by MaTH716

I think another factor that might have furthered any type of injury (if there was an actual one that wasn't caught) is that both horses raced in all 3 Triple Crown races.

As have many horses that emerged unscathed. see avatar. And it probably doesn't merit mentioning that there is no shortage of injured horses that have not run in any TC races.

It would be interesting to look at ALL horses that have run in all 3 TC races over the past 20 years and see how many were injured soon after the Belmont. But again it would be difficult to interpret the data. Any horse that does very well in the TC is going to be gone over VERY carefully, in a way that is more likely to turn up minor injuries.

--Dunbar

[ShadowRoll]

Next up: Irwin sues Maragh for loss of the winner's share of the Haskell purse.

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Dunbar

This doesn't make much more sense to me than asserting that Premier Pegasus's injury or Uncle Mo's health problems are due to them NOT galloping twice a day. Trying to find cause/effect is pretty tricky business.

It should make sense. When you buy a used car, don't you care about the mileage?

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

It should make sense. When you buy a used car, don't you care about the mileage?

Yes, I would care about a car's mileage. But then cars, unlike humans and horses, can't make themselves stronger with exercise.

--Dunbar

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Dunbar

Yes, I would care about a car's mileage. But then cars, unlike humans and horses, can't make themselves stronger with exercise.

Can humans and horses over do it?

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

It should make sense. When you buy a used car, don't you care about the mileage?

I know my old 76 Caprice Classic absolutely thrived on hay, oats and water.

[OTM Al]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Afleet Alex's arthritic ankle was likely the result of his unorthodox, yet much ballyhooed, "twice a day" training regimen, as a opposed to a single incident like the stumble.

If any one thing sent him to the shed with a bullet, it was the ridiculous 5f in :59+ he endured in his first work back, a mere 60 days after having a screw inserted in his cannon bone.

My recollection of this is that the blow he suffered caused part of the cannon bone to become necrotic, much the same sort of bone injury as Bo Jackson suffered to his hip. It would have broken had he kept racing.