Drugs and injuries in racing

[Hoof 11]

It was a bit of a strange day for the combo of John Oxley/Mark Casse, they had two breakdowns with Revello in the second race, and Danzig Moon in the Plate Trial.

Revello was stalking the pace and broke down coming out of the second turn, the filly was pulled up and vanned off.

Danzig Moon injured his right-hind quarter before the second turn. Jockey Julien Leparoux pulled up the son of Malibu Moon immediately, but made contact with the trailer R U Watchingbud, who fell as well, tossing his rider, Emma-Jayne Wilson. Danzig Moon was euthanized, while Leparoux, Wilson and R U Watchingbud were unhurt.

"The injury consisted of a compound fracture and the horse was humanely euthanized," said Dr. Grey Taylor, commission veterinarian for the Ontario Racing Commission. "The horse will go for a post mortem at Guelph (Equine Guelph Hospital)."

Danzig Moon finished fourth in the Tampa Bay Derby, a second in the Bluegrass, finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby as well as finishing sixth in the Preakness.

[The Pook]

Morning Hoof,

Are drugs the reason a horse will race so hard that they fracture legs. Thats the impression I have. That they don't feel the pain because it is masked. Also maybe inbreeding has led to delicate structure. But I'm sure a lot of the time it is just a bad step. I have never heard of humans breaking legs while racing. This is one area of the sport we love that I am most uncomfortable with. I can't believe though that a trainer like Casse would do drug things with a horse of this calibre.

When looking at Danzig Moons last two lines I thought that this just isn't the same horse. Should he even be racing. Was he trying to tell us something. The public still made him favourite but I had an odd feeling about him before he ran.

Pook

[Hoof 11]

Originally Posted by The Pook

Morning Hoof,

Are drugs the reason a horse will race so hard that they fracture legs. Thats the impression I have. That they don't feel the pain because it is masked. Also maybe inbreeding has led to delicate structure. But I'm sure a lot of the time it is just a bad step. I have never heard of humans breaking legs while racing. This is one area of the sport we love that I am most uncomfortable with. I can't believe though that a trainer like Casse would do drug things with a horse of this calibre.

When looking at Danzig Moons last two lines I thought that this just isn't the same horse. Should he even be racing. Was he trying to tell us something. The public still made him favourite but I had an odd feeling about him before he ran.

Pook

I’ve been thinking about this all morning, there has been a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach since yesterday, it really bothers me when a horse goes down.

I have a couple of thoughts on the matter, the first one being the track surface. It is well documented that Poly causes a lot of hind end injuries, there are fewer fatalities on the surface but a lot of horses have sore rear quarters after they race on the surface. The surface is long overdue to be replaced, and i imagine that the surface is tightening up especially with all the rain we have had over the weekend. The fact that Academic ran a track record in the Oaks tells me that the surface was firmer than usual, generally, when the Poly gets rained on it usually turns fluffy and is a burden on early runners. Yesterday and the day before we were seeing a lot of wire jobs, and by my weather model, that isn’t supposed to happen, the rain should cause a late bias. I follow the workouts everyday at Woodbine, and over the last 4 days we are seeing some blazing works, so that tells me that the track is tightening up, and i hope we don’t start seeing fatalities on a regular basis, December can’t come soon enough.

Casse is by no means an angel, he has his fair share of drug violations, and when you operate a horse colony of his size, how do you explain the amount of success that he has had? Do you really think he can give the attention needed to so many horses? I’ve always had my suspicions about his operation. There is a lot of money invested into the horses he trains, he has some really wealthy clients, John Oxley alone spends a small fortune on his horses and i imagine that results are expected.

I was shocked when he decided to run Danzig Moon in the Triple Crown races as well as taking a stab at the Queen’s Plate, i’m no trainer but that is a lot to ask from a horse in a short period of time, even Oxley was concerned about the workload. I imagine the phone conversation was a little uncomfortable after the fact.

Lastly, the horse may have had a slight injury when Leparoux pulled him up, and the collision between Danzig Moon and R U Watchingbud may have caused the back right quarter to break. I rewinded the incident after it happened and watched it a couple of times, it was pretty horrific. There could be other reasons, i don’t know, it was a sad day to see a horse of that caliber go down.

[The Pook]

I was thinking last week that I hadn't seen any bad breakdowns for weeks and even months at the tracks I follow. I was wondering whether something had changed in drug policies and that they were being used less. Then came Sunday. And today I saw a breakdown in the stretch in the 3rd at Delaware. I hate it.

Maybe it is just random or maybe their are improvements. The motive for drugs is profit. And like you say trainers are under pressure to produce results. Nobody wants to see injuries but I guess the feeling is to squeeze out as much as you can from every horse.

I think I read somewhere that an overall drug policy for all the US is trying to come together. What would happen if all drugs were banned and it was strictly enforced. Would it be so bad. It would be a level playing field. There would be cheaters but if the penalty was a lifetime expulsion for an infraction there might not be many. Isn't European racing much more drug free and injury free. Except maybe those nasty steeplechase races.

Pook
(This is a good discussion Hoof. I will try and get our last few posts moved to the general discussion area so that more can see and chime in.)

[The Pook]

In light of what happened at Woodbine on Sunday Hoof11 and I have been having a little discussion on medications and breakdowns in racing. It was in the Matchup contest forum but is now copied above. Feel free to throw in your two cents. I don't know much about this element and would like to know more.

Pook