December, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Co-Founder Of Ocala’s Peterson Smith Equine Hospital, Dr. John Peterson Passes

Dr. John Peterson, co-founder of the Peterson Smith Equine Hospital + Complete Care in Ocala, Fla., died on Dec. 25, 2022, according to an announcement on the company's social media channels.

“His dedication to the company and to the veterinary community as a whole will be fondly remembered by all,” the announcement reads. “We offer our deep condolences to his family.”

Dr. Peterson launched the practice in 1981 with Dr. Johnny Mac Smith, and continued seeing patients until the end of 2017.

From 1981–1982, Peterson Smith operated out of Dr. Peterson's farm. During this era, the decision was made to build an equine hospital. The grand opening of the hospital was July 10, 1983, at 4747 SW 60th Avenue, Ocala, Florida. This new facility was comprised of a single building consisting of a front office, offices for five veterinarians, a small laboratory, one treatment room with an x-ray machine, eight stalls and an apartment. The original surgery barn was built in 1984 and, over time, the medicine barn, sports medicine barn and an isolation barn were added.

In 1983, the practice started an internship program and became a teaching hospital. Since then, Peterson Smith Equine Hospital + Complete Care has maintained a minimum of one intern, but has mentored as many as eight interns at one time. Peterson Smith also became the first private equine practice to start a surgical residency program in 1983, which has developed the skills of many successful surgeons.

In 1999, the vision to create a reproduction center became a reality with the construction of the Equine Reproduction Center in Summerfield, Florida, now known as the Advanced Fertility Center. In 2007, the administrative building of the main hospital was renovated and expanded to create more office space.

“Over the years, he had a profound impact on the practice, with his bold vision shaping us into who we are today,” the announcement continues. “Dr. Peterson's significant and lasting contributions to the equine veterinary industry are many. None more important than the role his leadership and mentorship played in the lives and careers of the numerous veterinarians and support staff privileged to work alongside him throughout his career. His dedicated work will be remembered by his many clients and the equine industry as a whole.”

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Will Glasscock Promoted To Executive Director Of Kentucky Equine Education Project

The Kentucky Equine Education Project's (KEEP) Board of Directors announced that long-time consultant Will Glasscock will be promoted to executive director beginning Jan. 1, 2023. This follows the announcement by Elisabeth Jensen in September that she would be stepping down from her leadership role in the organization.

Glasscock began working as a consultant for KEEP in 2017. Since then, he has worked with many different facets of the organization and its mission, including KEEP's advocacy in Frankfort and Washington, the grassroots membership, strategic planning, and the KEEP Foundation. Most recently, Glasscock launched KEEP's Legislative Advocacy Committee, an important element in connecting individuals in the equine industry with our legislators in Frankfort and providing education and information on relevant policy.

Additionally, the board announced that Jensen will remain close to the organization and serve as a consultant with both the KEEP Alliance and the KEEP Foundation. In that role, Jensen will assist KEEP in managing board relations, industry stakeholders, and long-term strategic planning.

Case Clay, chairman of KEEP's Board of Directors, commented: “Will's significant knowledge of the legislative process and the needs of our industry, as well as his many years with KEEP, will allow for a smooth transition and immediate success in his new role.”

Glasscock commented on the announcement and the work ahead: “I am honored to have been asked to take on this position for an organization that is so vital to Kentucky and to Kentucky's horse industry. Thanks to Elisabeth Jensen's leadership for the past five years, KEEP is stronger than ever and I look forward to building on the organization's success. I also look forward to continuing to work with Elisabeth in her new role and with the KEEP Board of Directors and its leadership.”

Glasscock continued: “Kentucky's horse industry is once again leading the nation and its growth continues on a positive trajectory. It is imperative that we continue working to sustain Kentucky's success. Additionally, we will maintain KEEP's focus on the labor shortages facing the industry, as well as the importance of educating and informing Kentuckians about the true impact that the industry has on the Commonwealth's economy.”

Glasscock grew up in Kentucky and attended the College of Charleston and the George Washington University. Glasscock worked in Washington, D.C. for nearly nine years. There, he worked for two members of Congress and as director of government relations for a national trade association. Prior to returning to Kentucky in 2014, Glasscock and his wife Amy took a mid-career volunteer opportunity and spent two years serving as Peace Corps Volunteers in rural East Java, Indonesia.

Glasscock volunteers locally coaching youth sports and has served on the boards of the International Book Project, the Kentucky Peace Corps Association, the Clark County Community Foundation, and First Christian Church, Winchester, KY. Glasscock and his wife have a daughter and reside in Lexington.

About KEEP

The Kentucky Equine Education Project, Kentucky's equine economic advocate, is a not-for-profit grassroots organization created in 2004 to preserve, promote and protect Kentucky's signature multi-breed horse industry. KEEP is committed to ensuring Kentucky remains the horse capital of the world, including educating Kentuckians and elected officials of the importance of the horse industry to the state. KEEP was the driving force in the establishment of the Kentucky Breeders Incentive Fund, which has paid out more than $177 million to Kentucky breeders since its inception in 2006, and pari-mutuel wagering on historical horse racing, which has been responsible for more than $40 million to purses and more than $24 million to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.

KEEP works to strengthen the horse economy in Kentucky through our statewide network of citizen advocates. To learn more about how you can become a member or support our work, please visit www.horseswork.com.

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Dependable Dubawi a Deserved Champion

The recent football World Cup featured a few surprises, with several high-profile teams losing out to supposed lesser lights. That situation is not a mirror of what happened in the General Sires' Table of Great Britain and Ireland in 2022, when the established stars held their position so well that the first five in the 2021 table are the first five in the 2022 table, albeit in a different order. The most notable change in the order is one which many observers will applaud: Dubawi (Ire) has gained his deserved reward for years of consistent excellence by finally claiming the crown after many honourable near misses.

Dubawi's consistency as a stallion has been remarkable. An unbeaten Group 1 winner as a two-year-old in 2004 before taking the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas and G1 Prix Jacques le Marois the following year, he retired in 2006 to Dalham Hall Stud, where he has spent his entire career bar one season, 2008, when he stood at Kildangan.

One could say that there was guarded optimism about Dubawi's prospects at the outset, witness his first-season fee of £25,000, which at the time was a fair sum, but no more extravagant than that, for a horse with his form. It turned out that there was even less optimism that that figure implies because his fee had dropped to £15,000 by the time that he started to have runners in the spring of 2009. It was easy to see why opinions might have been divided. Dubawi was the star of the one and only crop of the fabulous Dubai Millennium (GB) who had covered for a fee of £100,000 in his only season (2001) but, while Dubai Millennium had been large, magnificent and very imposing horse, the diminutive Dubawi didn't look much like his dad at all.

It didn't take long for Dubawi to demonstrate that a great book doesn't have to have an eye-catching cover. He had a very good year with his first three-year-olds in 2010, most notably thanks to Makfi (GB) winning both the G1 2,000 Guineas and the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois. In the former race Makfi became the first of the three winners (so far) of the first Classic of the British year sired by Dubawi; in the latter he inflicted a rare defeat on the mighty Goldikova (Ire). At the end of the season, Dubawi, despite only having two crops to represent him, stood in a very creditable eighth place in the General Sires' Table. He has never looked back, and from 2013 onwards he has never finished out of the first five. In the ten seasons 2013 to '22 inclusive, his 'form figures' read 3422325231. Under the circumstances, the title of 'Champion Sire' is richly deserved by Dubawi, to be savoured by his connections and his many admirers all the more for how many times he has come close.

It didn't take long for Dubawi to demonstrate that a great book
doesn't have to have an eye-catching cover

As one would expect, Dubawi's fee has been a reflection of his success. In 2011 he covered at £55,000 before his fee rose to £75,000 the following year. By 2014 it was in six figures. It crossed the £200,000 mark in 2016, hit £250,000 in 2017 and, on the back of his first sires' championship, will be £350,000 in 2023. He will be full at that price, although in fairness one should point out that it is likely that only a relatively small number of nominations will be bought because so many are retained for use on the Darley/Godolphin broodmare band.

Until 2021, in all the seasons in which Dubawi was what one might term a 'minor place-getter' in the sires' championship the crown was held by Galileo (Ire). To date, Galileo (who died in July 2021 at the age of 23) has been champion sire 12 times, which means that he is currently one short of the total of titles achieved by his father Sadler's Wells. There is still time for him to equal, or even surpass, that total, but doing so will clearly be far easier said than done.

It was just a coincidence that Galileo's reign as champion sire ended in the year of his death because, obviously, a stallion's representation on the track does not start to drop off as soon as he dies, but a handful of years later. However, in Galileo's case a different obstacle had started to appear in the sense that he had become what one would could call a victim of his own success. So dominant had Galileo been for so long that a significant portion of the best mares in Europe were his daughters (and, in particular, such mares are numerous in the Coolmore band). Consequently he had ceased to be an option for a high percentage of the best mares, hence Coolmore having to look elsewhere and the 'Deep Impact over a Galileo mare' having become so conspicuously successful. In 2020 Galileo became champion broodmare sire of Great Britain and Ireland for the first time (making him the first horse in history to be champion sire and champion broodmare sire in the same season) and he has retained that title in both 2021 and '22.

When Galileo lost his champion sire's crown in 2021, he ceded it to his best son, Frankel (GB). Eight horses had finished runner-up behind Galileo during his 12 championships. Dubawi was the most successful of them with four second-place finishes, while Montjeu (Ire) was the only other stallion to occupy that position more than once. The other six stallions to finish second to Galileo were Danehill Dancer (Ire), Dansili (GB), Teofilo (Ire), Invincible Spirit (Ire), Dark Angel (Ire) and Sea The Stars (Ire). Ironically, Frankel was not one of those runners-up, but even so he had already been consistently successful in the small number of seasons since he had first appeared on the table. Frankel retired to stud in 2013 and entered the upper tiers of the general sires' table merely four years later (2017) when his oldest offspring were aged only three. He finished fourth that year, and from then to his first championship season (2021) he recorded form figures of 43401. When Frankel deposed Galileo in that 2021 season, the latter dropped merely one place to second. Both horses have enjoyed a good year again in 2022, finishing second and fourth in the sires' table respectively.

Frankel retired to stud in 2013 and entered the upper tiers of the general sires' table merely four years later when his oldest offspring were aged only three

This table obviously only includes performances in Great Britain and Ireland. Additionally, both stallions have had considerable further success overseas. Galileo's most notable international success of 2022 came when Oaks heroine Tuesday (Ire) supplemented her Classic triumph by taking the G1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Frankel was the sire of the Irish Classic winners Homeless Songs (Ire) and Westover (GB), not to mention the outstanding juvenile Chaldean (GB), but his tally of overseas victories is even more impressive. Seven of the 13 Group/Grade 1 victories for his offspring in 2022 came outside the British Isles, headed by the victory of Alpinista (GB) in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and also including the triumph of Nashwa (GB) in the G1 Prix de Diane. These two wins have helped to ensure that Frankel ends the year as Champion Sire of France by a margin of over €2 million over second-placed Siyouni (Fr), who thus takes the title of leading French-based sire of the year.

Dubawi, of course, also enjoyed significant international success again in 2022. The highlight of his spring came when he was responsible (with three different colts) for the winners of the G1 2,000 Guineas and its equivalent in both Ireland and France. In the autumn, he couldn't quite match his previous record (achieved in 2021) of three Breeders' Cup winners but still had two, courtesy of that Poule d'Essai des Poulains hero Modern Games (Ire) in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile and Rebel's Romance (Ire) in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. The latter had already scored twice in Group 1 company in Germany earlier in the season.

Aside from Dubawi, Frankel and Galileo, the other two horses to feature in the top five on the sires' table are Sea The Stars (third) and Dark Angel (fifth). These two are also proven to be thoroughly dependable, with the strengths of each clearly defined. Sea The Stars has put himself firmly in line to take up the mantle of his half-brother Galileo as the most reliable source of high-class stamina in Europe; while Dark Angel has proved himself a master at siring tough, fast horses who can come to hand quickly and also continue to progress over a number of seasons. Each is firmly established in the elite tier of European sires: not only did each finish second to Galileo in one of his championship seasons (in 2019 and 2017 respectively) but they (like Dubawi, Frankel and Galileo) are both part of the same quintet which has now dominated the table for two years running.

There must be a strong chance that Dubawi and Frankel will again 'fill the quinella' in the 2023 sires' table, not least because many onlookers regard Frankel's son Chaldean as Europe's most impressive two-year-old of 2022. Furthermore, one can expand that observation to say that if the past is a good guide to the future, all five of the principals from the standings of both 2021 and '22 are likely to enjoy yet another good season in the year ahead. All have reached the stage of seeming to be part of the furniture of the top tier of the leader-board, which makes the sixth-place finish of Dubawi's young Ballylinch-based son New Bay (GB) all the more creditable.

Winner of the 2015 G1 Prix du Jockey-Club, New Bay retired to stud in 2017 so he has reached this eminent position with his eldest offspring still aged only four. In an era in which the established stallions dominate the standings, it is encouraging to see so young a sire so prominent, particularly as his winners-to-runners ratio (49%) is second only to the figure recorded by his father Dubawi (51%). New Bay's excellent season, highlighted by the Group 1 double on QIPCO Champions Day at Ascot of his first-crop son Bay Bridge (GB) and his second-crop son Bayside Boy (Ire), marks him firmly down as potentially a leading sire of the seasons ahead.

The same comment could also apply to the only other 'third-season sire' in the top 20: Mehmas (Ire). His finishing position (19^th) is particularly creditable because, notwithstanding that he won two Group 2 races and was placed in two Group 1s in 2016, he didn't have the chance to put together a full racecourse CV because of his retirement after only one season in training. That meant that that Mehmas wasn't necessarily everyone's tip for the top at the outset, as is shown by the fact that he was covering for as little as €7,500 as recently as 2020. (The extent of the blossoming of his reputation is shown by the fact that he will cover for €60,000 in 2023).

The most successful 'second-crop sire' in Great Britain and Ireland in 2022 has been Churchill (Ire), who finishes the year in 23^rd position and whose potential was splendidly advertised during the season by the Cartier Champion Three-Year-Old Colt of Europe, Vadeni (Fr). The latter's victory in the G1 Eclipse S. at Sandown helped Churchill to be the best of this bunch of young stallions, while the Aga Khan homebred's G1 Prix du Jockey-Club triumph enabled Churchill to finish as high as fourth in the sires' table in France. Leading first-crop sire (by a wide margin) was Havana Grey (GB) who was represented by 36 individual winners of 56 races within Great Britain and Ireland. Collectively, his two-year-olds earned in excess of £1,000,000, a magnificent achievement which sees him finishing in a very creditable 39^th place in the General Sires' Table.

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Injectable Osteoarthritis Medication Approved By FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a pentosan polyuslfate sodium intramuscular injection for horses to control clinical signs associated with osteoarthritis. The product, sold under the name of Zycosan, is the first injectable pentosan product to be granted FDA approval.

Horses suffering from osteoarthritis may be lame, stiff, or experience joint swelling. There is no cure for the breakdown of joint cartilage, but management changes can help control the disease and improve the affected horse's quality of life.

Non-FDA approved injectable formulations of pentosan have long been used in horses. FDA approval means that the product has met the FDA's rigorous standards and that the drug is effective for its intended use. Approval also means that the drug has been consistently manufactured for strength, purity and identity. The FDA encourages veterinarians to use FDA-approved Zycosan when pentosan use is indicated.

Zycosan efficacy was tested in a field study involving lame, client-owned horses that had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in one leg. The horses were separated into two groups: one that received a Zycosan injection in the neck once a week for four weeks (for a total of four doses), and horses that received equal doses of saline at the same protocol.

Each horse's lameness was graded on days 0 and 28. On day 28, more horses in the Zycosan treated group had improved lameness compared to the control group. Study results indicate that Zycosan treatment, used at the labeled dose, benefits horses with single-limb lameness caused by osteoarthritis.

The most-common adverse reactions were injection site reactions and prolonged coagulation time. Reactions that occurred at time of dosing were resolved; other reactions were delayed up to three days after injection, but resolved within five days and the majority didn't require treatment.

Zycosan is available by prescription only.