Month: February 2023

Hall Of Fame Trainer John Veitch, 77, Passes; Trained Alydar, Four Champions

Hall of Fame trainer John Veitch, who helped revitalize Calumet Farm in the 1970s with champions Davona Dale, Our Mims, and Before Dawn and with Alydar – arch-rival of Triple Crown winner Affirmed – died on Tuesday in Lexington, Ky., according to Bloodhorse.com. He was 77 years old.

Born in Lexington on June 27, 1945, Veitch was the son of Hall of Fame trainer Sylvester Veitch and grandson of Silas Veitch, another trainer who started out as an exercise rider and jockey. Syl Veitch rode and trained steeplechase horses before taking on private training jobs with C.V. Whitney and, later, George D. Widener.

Like his father, John Veitch did his best work training for sporting owner-breeders. starting with Calumet Farm. earning Eclipse Awards for Our Mims as champion 3-year-old filly of 1977, Davona Dale as champion 3-year-old filly of 1979, and Before Dawn as champion 2-year-old filly of 1981.

Davona Dale, winner of 11 of 18 starts, was enshrined in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1985. Alydar was inducted in 1989 despite never winning an Eclipse Award. Winner of 14 of 26 races lifetime, the Calumet Farm homebred's battles with Harbor View Farm's Affirmed – finishing second in all three Triple Crown races in 1978 – were legendary, particularly the Belmont Stakes, where the two horses raced head and head for most of the mile and a half Test of the Champion, Affirmed winning narrowly in the end.

The Affirmed-Alydar rivalry began the previous year when the two colts faced each other six times, Affirmed getting the better of Alydar in four out of the six. They finished 1-2 in five of those races.

Veitch quit his private job at Calumet when J.T. Lundy took over as head of the Wright family's farm and wound up training for another great sportsman, John Galbreath and his Darby Dan Farm. For Darby Dan he won the 1985 Breeders' Cup Classic at Aqueduct with Proud Truth, bringing the Graustark colt off a layoff and winning his prep race, the Discovery Handicap, just one week before the Classic. Proud Truth won 10 of 21 races and nearly $2.2 million.

Three years later, Veitch won an Eclipse Award as grass champion with the Darby Dan homebred Sunshine Forever, a son of Roberto out of a Graustark mare.

In all, Veitch won 410 races between 1974 and 2003, including 76 graded stakes, 31 of them Grade 1. His last G1 victory came with Darby Dan's Plenty of Grace in the 1990 Yellow Ribbon Invitational Stakes at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting.

 

 

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Hall of Fame Trainer John Veitch Passes Away at 77

John Veitch, a Hall of Famer who trained numerous stars, including Alydar, whose legendary battles with Affirmed were part of one of the sport's greatest rivalries, passed away Tuesday in Lexington, Kentucky. He was 77.

The news of Veitch's passing was first reported by the Blood-Horse.

Veitch's training career ran from 1974 through 2003. According to Equibase, he had 410 career winners and his stable amassed earnings of $20,097,980. He won 76 graded stakes and 93 stakes races overall.

Veitch's best years came as the head trainer for Calumet Farm. For Calumet, he trained three champions, Before Dawn, Davona Dale and Our Mims. But he was best known for being the trainer of Alydar, who finished second behind Affirmed in all three Triple Crown races in 1978.

“At this point, I'm not going to concede anything to Affirmed,” Veitch told the New York Times prior to the 1978 GI Belmont S. “Affirmed is a damn fine race horse. We're looking forward to meeting him again in the Belmont, and I'm confident it will be the most favorable race for Alydar.”

In what many regard as one of the best races ever, Alydar battled Affirmed all the way to the wire in the Belmont, but lost by a head.

Alydar went on to become one of the greatest sires of his generation.

In 1982, Veitch parted ways with Calumet and became the private trainer for Darby Dan Farm. For Darby Dan, he campaigned Proud Truth, the winner of the 1985 GI Breeders' Cup Classic. While with Darby Dan, he also won the GI Florida Derby with Brian's Time and the GI Yellow Ribbon S. and the GII Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup with Plenty of Grace.

The son of Hall of Fame trainer Sylvester Veitch, Veitch was born in Lexington in 1945. After attending Bradley University, where he was a member of the football team, the trainer worked as an assistant to his father and Elliott Burch before going out on his own.

In 1998, Veitch closed his small public stable and took the job of racing consultant to a member of Saudi Arabia's royal family. He returned to the United States in April 2000 and trained for Calumet Farm's new owner Henryk deKwiatkowski in 2001.

He stopped training in 2003 and accepted a job as the chief steward for the Kentucky Racing Commission. His tenure as a steward ended in controversy after Life At Ten was allowed to compete in the GI Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic at Churchill Downs even though jockey John Velazquez told a televised audience that he was concerned with the way his mount was warming up. Life At Ten trailed the field throughout as the favorite and was not selected for a post-race test. The KHRC charged Veitch with five administrative violations for not reacting appropriately to Velazquez's comment. Some seven years later, Veitch reached a settlement with the commission and his one-year suspension was removed from his record.

He was elected to the Racing Hall of Fame in 2007.

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Abscesses And Liver Disease: An Unlikely Connection?

The liver is one of a horse's largest organs, weighing approximately one percent of his body weight. It has myriad functions, including the excretion of bile, storage of vitamins and minerals, filtration of toxins, and it plays a key role in fat, protein and carbohydrate metabolism. The liver also contains immune cells, produces proteins for immune functions and prevents gut bacteria from reaching the bloodstream.

Though liver disease in horses is not diagnosed often, this doesn't mean that horses don't suffer from it. The cause of some cases is never known, but liver disease is most-often linked to the ingestion of toxic plants, bacterial infections and fatty liver. Two viruses have also been found to cause the disease. 

Liver issues in small animals are much more common. There is often evidence that liver failure compromises the immune system and increases the risk of bacterial infections in organs. 

In horses, multiple other conditions can compromise the immune system, including pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID). Hoof abscesses are particularly common in horses with PPID. 

While liver failure might cause hoof abscesses or other infections, it's not likely. More common signs of liver disease are loss of appetite, weight loss, sunburning on white markings, and yellowing of the sclera.

If anything seems amiss, a full veterinary workup is recommended, including bloodwork and endocrine testing. 

Read more at EQUUS magazine. 

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