Month: February 2022

Equibase Analysis: God Of Love Poised To Upset Sam F. Davis

This Saturday's Grade 3, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes is the local prep race for the Tampa Bay Derby four weeks later and brings together a field of 12 (plus one also-eligible) vying for all-important points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby as well as possible favoritism in next month's race.

In terms of the best efforts in the best races to date, G2 Kentucky Jockey Club runner-up Classic Causeway deserves mentioning first as he was sent to post as the seven-to-five favorite in that race at the end of November and was clearly second best in that field of 11.

God of Love certainly has the right credentials, having won the G3 Grey Stakes around the same time as the Kentucky Jockey Club last fall.

Strike Hard was second in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes on New Year's Day, with Mr Rum Runner checking in third that day, and both may be able to improve in their first graded stakes tries.

Make It Big won the Springboard Mile Stakes in mid-December and is undefeated in three starts so is certainly no slouch.

Shipsational has won three of four races including the Sleepy Hollow Stakes in October. He is returning from the longest layoff of any in this field as he has not run since then.

Howling Time checked in a poor fifth in the Kentucky Jockey Club when last seen in November but won the Street Sense Stakes prior to that and must be respected based on that effort.

The rest of the field consists of six horses and not one of them is in what anyone could call bad form, each having won in one of their two most recent races, either in maiden or allowance company. These are Golden Glider, Kitten Mischief, Little Vic (the lone also-eligible), Trademark, Unpredictable Bay and Volcanic.

Main win contenders:

God of Love will get top billing among five horses who I feel have the bulk of the probability to win this year's Sam F. Davis Stakes. The reason is he has won two of three two-turn races, both stakes, and his final effort of 2021 was a strong victory in the Grey Stakes at the end of November. Although run on all-weather, the Grey Stakes has its place in Road to the Kentucky Derby history, as 2008 Derby winner Mine that Bird won the 2007 edition of the race. Prior to the Grey, God of Love stretched out to two turns for his second career start last fall and won with a rally from ninth of 11 after hopping in the air at the start. Two races later in the Grey, he rallied from ninth of 10, circling the field four paths wide and in visually impressive fashion before pulling away late.

Jockey Rafael Hernandez has been aboard in all four of his starts and certainly knows how to get the colt to run well. The 95 ™ Equibase® Speed Figure God of Love earned when winning the Grey Stakes is near the top of the field and is very likely to be improved upon as the colt is a more mature 3-year-old as compared to when seen last fall. There is little concern about coming back from the layoff since the end of November, considering White Abarrio came back from an identical layoff (his last race having been in the Kentucky Jockey Club) to win the Holy Bull Stakes last weekend and God of Love's trainer, Mark Casse, won the 2021 Tampa Bay Derby with Helium off a layoff from the previous fall.

Another comparable factor exists between Helium and God of Love, in that Helium had won the Display Stakes at Woodbine in his last start as a 2-year-old just like God of Love won the Grey Stakes in his last start as a 2-year-old. Back to the comparison between 2007 Grey Stakes winner Mine that Bird and God of Love, it can be recalled that returning off a three month layoff in February, 2008, Mine that Bird finished second in the Borderland Derby then two races later posted the 50 to 1 upset at Churchill Downs. God of Love may not be that good yet, but he may be good enough to win the Sam F. Davis Stakes in his 3-year-old debut.

Classic Causeway is also returning from a layoff since the last week in November, when second in the Kentucky Jockey Club. Prior to that Classic Causeway finished third in the Breeders' Futurity, earning a 92 ™ figure, which he improved to 95 in the Jockey Club. That race has become a “key race” because it has been quite productive to date, with seventh-place finisher Call Me Midnight winning the Lecomte Stakes earlier this year and with third-place finisher White Abarrio winning the Holy Bull Stakes last week. Considering Classic Causeway was nearly three lengths in front of White Abarrio in the Kentucky Jockey Club, it is logical to assume this colt will run as well or better in his 3-year-old debut and as such he must be taken very seriously as a contender to win this race.

Howling Time faded to fifth in the Kentucky Jockey Club after leading through the opening seven furlongs. He had changed tactics in that race when going for the lead because in his two prior efforts, both wins, Howling Time had rallied from off the pace and drawn off from the field in the last eighth of a mile. One of those wins came in his second career start and first race around two turns (also at the distance of the Sam F. Davis) in which Howling Time won the Street Sense Stakes easily by 3 1/4 lengths and earned a 96 ™ figure. Although he faded to fifth in the Jockey Club, the fact that race has turned out to be so productive bodes well for Howling Time returning to top form. The colt also put in a very good five furlong workout in 59 seconds flat one week ago, and trainer Dale Romans won the 2018 Fountain of Youth Stakes with Promises Fulfilled who was coming back from a layoff similar to the one Howling Time returns from.

Strike Hard and Make It Big deserve mentioning as well. Strike Hard finished second to Simplification in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes last month and was seven lengths clear of the third horse. Simplification came back to run extremely well in the Holy Bull Stakes last week when second after breaking poorly. Considering Strike Hard has earned competitive 92 and 93 ™ figures in his last two races, he deserves some respect in this situation. Make It Big won the Springboard Mile Stakes in December in his most recent race, bringing his record to a perfect three-for-three. That was his first two-turn race and he passed the test with flying colors because he had to fight off a bid which started with three-sixteenths of a mile to run. In the end, the colt prevailed by a half-length and earned a career-best 89 figure which can be improved upon.

The rest of the field, all who have the ability to compete effectively in this race, with their best ™ Equibase Speed Figures, is Golden Glider (91), Kitten Mischief (96), Little Vic (96), Mr Rum Runner (86), Shipsational (94), Trademark (93), Unpredictable Bay (99) and Volcanic (94).

Main Win Contenders, in probability order:

God of Love
Classic Causeway
Howling Time

Sam F. Davis Stakes – Grade 3
Race 10 at Tampa Bay Downs
Saturday, February 12 – Post Time 4:54 PM E.T.
One and One Sixteenth Miles
Three Year Olds
Purse: $250,000

Source of original post

Life Is Good, Hot Rod Charlie Among Dubai World Cup Nominations

American stars Life Is Good (Into Mischief) and Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) are among 153 horses nominated to the $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup, which will be run at Meydan on Mar. 26. A total of 750 horses from 20 different countries have been nominated for the nine-race, $30.5-million card.

The 4-year-old Life Is Good was the emphatic winner of both the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar and the GI Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 29, while Hot Rod Charlie was multiple Classic-placed last year and won the GI Pennsylvania Derby and last week's G2 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 at Meydan.

Sheikh Rashid bin Dalmook Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai Racing Club, said, “To have more than 750 horses from 20 different countries nominated shows the continued strength of the Dubai World Cup meeting, which has grown each year since its inception in 1996. This achievement has been made possible by the vision and guidance of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who is the world's most influential supporter of this sport. We are delighted to have so many Group and Grade 1 winners nominated, including established stars such as Life Is Good and Hot Rod Charlie, and we thank the horse connections for their support and their trust in Dubai. We look forward to welcoming connections and fans to the 26th Dubai World Cup and we aim to deliver a spectacular night.”

Click here for the full list of nominations.

The post Life Is Good, Hot Rod Charlie Among Dubai World Cup Nominations appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Three-Legged Quarter Horse Stallion Thriving With New Prosthesis

When Quarter Horse stallion Triple Vodka developed a septic coffin joint in 2021, Texas-based breeding farm Zerlotti Genetics had to terminate the multiple stakes winner's breeding season early. Despite top-notch care, the debilitating issue worsened over the course of the year, and eventually became so serious that only two options remained.

Either Triple Vodka would have to be euthanized, or he could be sent to Wyoming's Yellowstone Equine Hospital to meet Dr. Ted Vlahos.

Vlahos has become an industry pioneer in equine limb amputation and prosthetics, completing over 100 cases across four continents. Amputation is a last-ditch effort to preserve a horse's life, Vlahos explained, and he only performs the procedure under strict circumstances.

“Our premise is that we much prefer that a horse have four legs than three, but in cases where we can't save the leg, we are able to save the horse,” Vlahos said. “We deal with the most severely injured horses in the world. We get the worst of the worst, so we're eliminating that source of pain and disease.

“The procedure is well-tolerated by the horse and they can do very well, but it's not for everyone. We thoroughly interview clients to be sure they're fully committed, and that their horses are good candidates for it.”

Another consideration is whether laminitis has already progressed in the horse's supporting limb. Initially, Vlahos and his team avoided cases with any signs of support limb laminitis, but after 22 years of performing the procedure they have documented mild cases resolving after removal of the damaged limb and addition of a prosthetic.

Triple Vodka's easy-going demeanor made him an ideal candidate for the procedure, and the stallion was shipped to Wyoming in the fall of 2021.

Since Triple Vodka's issue was in the coffin joint within the hoof, his right front leg was amputated below the fetlock. 

“In the case of the distal limb, we preserve the sesamoid bones so we have a bulbous end,” Vlahos explained. “We also don't want horses to walk on raw nerve endings on that stump, so we perform a neurectomy removing about three inches of nerve so they can't feel the stump. We also perform a tendon flap procedure, creating a thick pad of tendon at the end of the bone that is then covered with skin.”

Both the neurectomy and the tendon flap procedure are well-described in human medicine, a fact Vlahos certainly appreciates due to his incorporation of the expertise of human trauma surgeons into his practice. Vlahos hired Dr. Dale Larson, a cardiothoracic surgeon with experience in Vietnam, for three years as his assistant to learn about modalities that could be adapted to equine medicine, and he has worked with four other human surgeons to perfect his techniques.

Vlahos looks back to his early schooling at Ohio State as one of the motivating factors in pursuing amputation and prosthetics as an equine specialty.

“I had a pretty famous professor at the time who told us, 'Never be afraid to fail,'” said Vlahos. “That was Dr. Larry Bramlage, and he'd just published his first group of fetlock arthrodesis horses. I took that to heart and was fortunate to be trained by wonderful human surgeons who saw the worst of the worst in Vietnam. They helped me with my desire to advance our profession and help the horse successfully.”

Vlahos' mentor at Washington State, Dr. Barrie Grant, also performed several successful amputations on prominent equines, including a Thoroughbred stallion named Boitron. He had suffered a hauling accident that required a hind limb to be amputated, but his prosthesis allowed him to gallop in his paddock and breed like any other stallion.

Of course, the primary difference between equine and human amputation is that horses are required to be weight-bearing immediately after surgery. To solve this problem, Vlahos places two threaded pins in the distal third of the cannon bone and applies a transfixation cast – this allows the weight to be transferred to the pins instead of to the stump. A metal cup and strap system are utilized to reduce stress at the bone-pin interface when the horse pivots and turns.

The stump is checked for healing two to three weeks after the amputation, and the pins are removed approximately two weeks later to allow full loading of the horse's weight on the stump through the cast. A couple more weeks go by, and the construction of the prosthesis can begin.

It takes multiple fittings and tests to ensure proper alignment of the carbon fiber prosthesis, which opens and closes with straps much like a ski boot to attach to the horse's limb. The base is a titanium post and stainless steel footplate, with borium integrated into the bottom to increase traction. 

The horse wears a standard human prosthetic sock, and the sock is initially changed every day, and later every two to three days, depending on the horse's individual needs. The end result is a healthy, happy horse capable of life as a pasture pet or breeding animal.

Triple Vodka returned to Texas with his new prosthesis in January, and was able to be collected approximately a month later.

Of course, the horse's gait is altered by the procedure. Just like any horse with a fusion of a joint, other joints or parts of the body take up the load. 

“Because they've lost range of motion, they appear stiff, mechanically, but they are comfortable,” said Vlahos. “The oldest horse we have right now is 15 years post-op, and he's a very comfortable horse… We expect the horses to not really have any difference in life expectancy.” 

While Vlahos has not performed force plate analyses to determine the weight-bearing load on the supporting limb versus the amputated one, he notes that horses are able to pick up their good foot and fully weight bear on the prosthesis for farriery care.

Most equine amputations are performed at the fetlock level or below, but some have been performed at mid-cannon bone, and rarely at the mid-radius (above the knee or hock). In the latter case, the prosthesis immobilizes the joint and requires a strap system similar to that of a high amputation in humans.

“It's been a slow process to get it accepted, but the horses really do so well,” Vlahos said. “I'm pleased that other vets across the world are starting to recognize it as a viable option. When I'm helping other surgeons with the procedure, I routinely hear, 'Why haven't we been doing this before today?'”

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights