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Japan Headlines Day Two Cast

With Ballydoyle off the mark at the 2020 Royal Ascot meeting, Japan (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) bids to continue the momentum on Wednesday in a fascinating renewal of the G1 Prince of Wales’s S. Impressive in the G2 King Edward VII S. over 12 furlongs at this meeting 12 months ago, having been third in the G1 Epsom Derby following an interrupted preparation, the bay enjoyed a fruitful campaign thereafter when taking the G1 Grand Prix de Paris in July and York’s G1 Juddmonte International in August. Fourth in a vintage edition of the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe back over the Grand Prix de Paris course and distance in October, he is Coolmore’s most important runner of the week even if he comes with the “ready to start” proviso.

“We would have liked to have got a run into him before, but he’s in good form,” Aidan O’Brien commented. “He’s a horse we are looking forward to this year and we think he’ll run a nice race and improve and come on for it. A mile and a quarter was no problem to him on a flat track at York and we think he’s very comfortable at the trip. He’s a very relaxed horse and a good traveller who can be a bit lazy when he gets there. He’s very genuine with a lovely mind.”

While Japan and most of the rest of the world were in lockdown, Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) was living it up in Australia winning the G1 Ranvet S. at Rosehill on Mar. 21 and the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. at Randwick on Apr. 11. Both successes came on his favoured easy ground, which he looks likely to get again here and his match-fitness gives him a major edge over the favourite. It may also be that the 6-year-old has progressed again since last year, when he was the impressive winner of a very strong renewal of the Listed Wolferton S. at this meeting and second to Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 Champion S. over this distance. “We were pleased to see the rain falling on Monday evening and the more that falls between now and Wednesday afternoon the better for him,” trainer William Haggas said. “He’s ready to go. He’s had a good year already and he came back from Australia very fit. This is probably a bit of a step up from the Australian races, but he’s no slouch and a pretty smart horse on his day.”

Another who has had the benefit of a spring campaign is Godolphin’s Barney Roy (GB) (Excelebration {Ire}), who took Meydan’s Jan. 30 G2 Al Rashidiya and Mar. 7 G1 Jebel Hatta in the manner of a campaigner getting near his 3-year-old peak. Successful in the 2017 G1 St James’s Palace S. when under the care of Richard Hannon, he was eighth in the G1 Queen Anne S. last year but Charlie Appleby has had an abundance of time to re-focus the 6-year-old. “I feel confident he is back to his best and, as a past winner at the Royal meeting, he has a lot of class,” his trainer said. “He steps back up to a mile and a quarter after two wins in Dubai during the winter, when he really strengthened as an individual. I think he will run a cracking race. This is well within his compass.”

Also featuring is Khalid Abdullah’s G2 Prix Eugene Adam and G2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano winner and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Headman (GB) (Kingman {GB}), who gets his keenly-anticipated 4-year-old season underway, and two John Gosden-trained outsiders in Sheikh Zayed bin Mohammed Racing’s progressive June 7 G3 Brigadier Gerard S. winner Lord North (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Emirates Park Pty Ltd’s G2 Prix de Malleret scorer and G1 Nassau S. runner-up Mehdaayih (GB) (Frankel {GB}).

Teddy Grimthorpe said of Headman, “Roger has always thought highly of him. He’s a nice, scopey horse now. He’s done very well through the winter. He’s a got a bit of class, slightly like his father, Kingman–he has that good turn of foot to go and win. He obviously needs to step up and win at Group 1 standard this year. He’s given us the right signs he’ll be better as an older horse, but he has to put it on the line.”

John Gosden said of his pair, “Lord North is a grand horse and he’s taking his chance. It’s a good edition of the race. He did nothing but improve last year. We could have run him in the Listed race [the Wolferton] with his penalty, but that seemed a little bit cowardly–we thought it’s a small-enough field, it’s a lovely race to run in. We’d be thrilled to get a piece of it.

“Mehdaayih is a very talented filly. We deliberated and waited. I didn’t want to run her before this. She’s not a huge, strong filly, she’s very athletic and I think she’ll go there well fresh.”

In the G3 Hampton Court S., Ballydoyle’s Russian Emperor (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is turned out just eight days after his second in Leopardstown’s G3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial and he encounters The Queen’s seven-length Kempton maiden winner First Receiver (GB) (New Approach {Ire}) and Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum’s G1 2000 Guineas fifth Juan Elcano (GB) (Frankel {GB}). Also engaged is George Strawbridge’s June 3 G3 Sandown Classic Trial winner Berlin Tango (GB) (Dansili {GB}), whose form was boosted when the runner-up Pyledriver (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}) took Tuesday’s G2 King Edward VII S., and last year’s G3 Horris Hill S. scorer Kenzai Warrior (Karakontie {Jpn}). He almost lost his rider at the start of the G1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket when ninth on June 6 and trainer Roger Teal is looking for better fortune. “He’s been absolutely fine since the Guineas–he came out of it as fresh as paint,” he commented. “It obviously didn’t go to plan on the day. He just got himself a bit over-excited, I think he was a bit shocked when the stalls opened and he’s fly-leapt and stumbled and that was that. He came back not very proud of himself, but hopefully he can redeem himself on Wednesday. He seems in very good form and I think the step up in trip will suit him–he’s more of a galloper than a speedster.”

The meeting’s first 2-year-old race is the Listed Windsor Castle S., in which Aidan O’Brien saddles the June 10 Navan maiden first and third Chief Little Hawk and Hyde Park Barracks both by Coolmore’s first-season sire Air Force Blue. Other freshmen sires with runners are Winstar’s Speightster, whose son Sheriff Bianco races for Qatar Racing and Wesley Ward, Tally Ho Stud’s Mehmas (Ire), who has four representatives, and the Cheveley Park Stud resident Twilight Son (GB). Ward also has Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Apr. 30 Gulfstream Park scorer Sunshine City (Creative Cause) with Frankie up, while Archie Watson puts forward Mohammed Rashid’s Mighty Gurkha (Ire) (Sepoy {Aus}). Off the mark by 7 1/2 lengths on Lingfield’s Polytrack June 5, he could provide Hollie Doyle with a first Royal winner and place her in an exclusive club of successful female jockeys alongside Gay Kelleway and Hayley Turner.

Other notable runners on a day featuring four handicaps are the John Gosden-trained Royal Hunt Cup contenders Lord Tennyson (GB) (Poet’s Voice {GB}), who was second in the Listed Paradise S. on his second career start at Newmarket June 5, and Alrajaa (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). The latter represents Shadwell who had such a bright start to the meeting on Tuesday, and the exciting 4-year-old is looking to restart where he left off with four wins in the autumn. There is even a Silver Royal Hunt Cup as a consolation race for those who missed the ballot in the main event, the 3-year-old King George V S. which often provides clues to the middle-distance Classics, and the new Copper Horse H. for the older stayers.

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Ask Your Veterinarian Presented By Kentucky Performance Products: What’s Bone Bruising?

Veterinarians at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital answer your questions about sales and healthcare of Thoroughbred auction yearlings, weanlings, 2-year-olds and breeding stock.

QUESTION: What does it really mean when a veterinarian talks about a racehorse having “bone bruising”?

DR. A.J. RUGGLES: If you been around racehorses you likely have heard the term “bone bruising.” Despite its common use the term is really not entirely accurate in most cases. What your veterinarian is likely referring to is Non-Adaptive Stress Remodeling (NASR). You can see why the term bone bruising is more commonly used. While a true contusion (bruise) of the bone–manifested by lameness and characteristic findings of edema in the bone on magnetic resonance imaging–occurs, it is much less common than NASR.

To understand NASR and its causes, an understanding of bone anatomy and physiology is necessary. Most people think of the skeleton as an inert frame that muscle, tendon and ligaments attach to allow movement or as protection for vital organs. While the skeleton performs these functions, it also is a very dynamic system than is undergoing a constant process of removal and replacement as the horse grows in size and is being trained.

Dr. Alan Ruggles

It is easy to realize the skeleton of a foal is different than the skeleton of a 3-year-old. Not only has the horse grown in stature, but the structure of the bone itself is altered to fit its athletic activity. For example, the front of the cannon bones in the front legs of a trained 3-year-old will be thicker and denser compared to a 3-year-old that has never trained and only exercised at pasture. Likewise, an older broodmare who has been out of training and has had many foals may have a relatively weaker skeleton compared to the actively trained racehorse due to the absence of training and the depletion of calcium from her skeleton due to multiple lactation cycles.

When an athlete trains, whether it is a person or horse, receptors between the cells within the bone recognize the changes in load in the bone and send a signal for the bone to change its geometry and replace damaged bone to fit this new activity. This normal process is called stress remodeling. During this process original bone is removed and new bone is produced to replace it. Imagine a long bone like the cannon bone as a cable of a suspension bridge and within the cable are multiple smaller wires cables.

When bone changes its shapes or repairs injured bone each of these original smaller wires (primary osteons) are removed and then replaced with new bone (secondary osteons). During this process the removal phase occurs at a rate 50 times faster than the replacement rate. The rate of remodeling is influenced by the stimulus of training and when it occurs successfully, the process is necessary and positive. Another response of bone is to make itself larger quickly to resist mechanical loads by putting down relatively weaker (woven not cortical bone) on the surface of a bone. This is what causes the bump in bucked shins.

Most of the adaptive process of the horse skeleton via stress remodeling occurs without incident but sometimes the process gets overwhelmed and manifests as lameness. If there is a failure of the normal stress remodeling process, there can be an accumulation of damaged bone which can cause lameness, micro fissures and fractures.

An image captured from a bone scan shows an area of concern

Sometimes the lameness is obvious and easily detected, such as a bucked shin of the front cannon bone. Sometimes the lameness is obvious but not easily detected on a physical exam as with humeral, tibial or ilial stress fractures. Most commonly, at least in our practice, the horse has clinical signs of poor performance: perhaps a “crabby gait” or not changing leads. The horse is often lame in more than one limb, which makes detection of the problem more difficult.

A careful lameness examination with diagnostic nerve blocks is recommended to ferret out the cause of the lameness. The nerve blocks help us localize the source of lameness and help us direct our diagnostic imaging such as radiographs, ultrasound, nuclear scintigraphy, MRI or computed tomography.

Nuclear scintigraphy (commonly known as bone scan) is very helpful in detecting stress remodeling since it is best suited to detect excess bone metabolic activity which occurs during stress remodeling and stress fractures.

Radiographs and computed tomography may reveal increased density of the bone with associated bone resorption especially in the condyles of the distal cannon bone. There also may be changes in the bone contour and the development of fractures. Magnetic resonance imaging with high field magnets (MRI) is helpful to determining the health of the cartilage as well as bone and associated soft tissue structures. Ultrasound is not generally helpful in diagnosis or management. Newer technologies such as standing computed tomography and PET scans give detailed 3D images of bone and show promise but are not yet available for widespread use and are still undergoing clinical validation in the management of stress remodeling.

An MRI shows an area of bone bruising

If your horse is diagnosed with bone bruising, it likely has a form of NASR. That is the bad news. The good news is most cases do not develop clinical fractures and therefore are not treated surgically and responds to rest. Horses that develop fractures such as dorsal cortical fracture of the cannon bone or condylar fractures of the cannon often are treated surgically for best outcomes. Other hairline fractures of the humerus and tibia are treated with rest alone. The majority of cases in racehorse affect the bottom of the cannon bone or the third carpal bone and are treated with rest.

An image from a radiograph shows bone bruising

Typically, they are given 60 to 90 days off and pasture activity is recommended. The purpose of the period of rest is to allow the skeleton to catch up with the signals that have been sent by training so the stress remodeling process can finish to better allow the bone to withstand the rigor of training and racing. Remember, during stress remodeling bone resorption is 50 times faster than production.

Timing on when to turn the horse out obviously depends on the degree of lameness. If the horse shows any potential for a fracture being present, negative follow-up radiographs are needed before turnout etc. All these decisions are unique for each horse and should and be made in concert with your veterinarian. Treatments such aspirin and isoxsuprine and some over the counter supplements may help during the process by improving blood flow to the bone. Drugs which inhibit the natural bone remodeling process such as bisphosphonates, in my opinion, should not be used in cases of NASR and should only be used as labeled.

The vast majority (80% plus) respond to a period of rest with turnout. This is a tried and true method of trainers who have for decades given horses time off usually in the winter. These methods still work today of course. Proper diagnosis of NASR is important in my opinion to make sure you know what you are treating and to make sure no other condition exists that might require a different intervention.

Next time you hear that a horse has bone bruising, remember it is likely a form of NASR and hopefully you will have a better understand of the natural process of bone turnover and how it is related to this syndrome.

Dr. Ruggles specializes in orthopedic surgery and lameness. In addition to his experience as a practicing veterinarian, he served as a faculty member at New Bolton Center and at Ohio State University before joining Rood and Riddle in 1999. He is a partner in the hospital and is part of the AAEP “On Call” media program.

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Inside Man: Aqueduct Security Guard Charged In March Heist Of Over $280,000

A security guard at Aqueduct Racetrack has been charged with robbery under the federal Hobbs Act, which prohibits crimes that affect interstate or foreign commerce, after authorities found evidence that he acted as the “inside man” during a March 8 heist of over $280,000, reports the New York Post.

Lafayette Morrison allegedly told his long-time associate Lamel Miller and an unidentified third man when and where the cash would be moved to the vault after the Gotham card at Aqueduct. Authorities found a pair of burner phones Morrison and Miller used to communicate with one another 38 times, and Morrison and Miller were previously arrested together in 2000 for robbery.

In a prepared statement, Brooklyn US Attorney Richard Donoghue said: “The defendants allegedly gambled that they could pull off a high-stakes robbery with the benefit of inside information, but thanks to the outstanding efforts of ATF Special Agents and NYPD detectives, they ended up on the losing end of that bet.”

Galileo, Sons Setting The Standard

Last weekend was an extraordinary one for the great Galileo (Ire). A world-best 85th Group 1 winner with Peaceful (Ire) in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas went along nicely with the top-level victories by his son Teofilo (Ire)’s unbeaten G1 Prix Saint Alary heroine Tawkeeq (Ire), plus that of Sottsass (Fr)-out of Galileo mare Starlet’s Sister (Ire)–in the G1 Prix Ganay.

When the Danehill gelding Zipping became his sire’s 84th Group 1 winner in the Australian Cup at Flemington on March 13, 2010, it seemed an unsurpassable record at the time. After all, Danehill spent a lifetime covering sizeable books of mares in both hemispheres. His closest pursuer was the previous record holder Sadler’s Wells, whom Danehill had overtaken in 2005. Now, 10 years on, we have a new world leader in Sadler’s Wells’s son Galileo, who equalled his great stud companion’s feat when Magic Wand (Ire) won the LKS McKinnon S. at Flemington last year and became the clear leader following Peaceful’s victory in the Irish 1000 Guineas this week.

At the time of Danehill’s 84th Group 1 winner, Galileo already had four crops at the races and his total of Group 1 winners stood at just 12. And given the fact that he himself stopped shuttling to Australia after only four seasons, there were no guarantees that Galileo would get close to Danehill’s total. A long successful innings was needed and thankfully Galileo has stayed healthy enough to produce large quality crops ever since. As things stand, he’s managed to produce just about the same number of runners as Danehill did from his two bases. Both have been represented by about 2,100 runners and therefore have almost identical strike rates when it comes to Group 1 winners.

The pair are also extremely close when ranked by other metrics, with Danehill still holding sway with 344 stakes winners, compared to Galileo’s 315, but that title will go Galileo’s way too sooner rather than later. And he also eclipsed Danehill’s 207 group winners earlier this year when Magic Attitude won the G3 Prix Vanteaux. The question now for Galileo is what standards he himself can set any future challenger.

Just to prove the Galileo machine is working on all fronts, his son Teofilo also got in on the action at the weekend when his unbeaten daughter Tawkeel became his 16th Group 1 winner. She was also her sire’s 91st stakes winner, which moves Teofilo ever closer to 100, a score achieved by fewer than 20 European sires since the pattern began. What’s remarkable about Teofilo is the 10%-plus rate at which he gets stakes winners. Any sire that can maintain 10% stakes winners or above for 10 seasons is worthy of praise. To underline the point, he’s one of only eight active stallions currently above this benchmark. Moreover, he’s upgrading his mares markedly.

Tawkeel, currently rated 115p by Timeform, has the potential to become his best-ever filly. G1 Irish St Leger winner Voleuse de Coeurs (Ire) is his highest-rated filly at 122, two pounds ahead of the Timeform 120-rated Group 2-winning sprinter Tantheem (Ire) who–like Tawkeel–is a Shadwell homebred. Of course, Teofilo’s highest-rated son is the brilliant Exultant (Timeform 126), a five-time Group 1 winner in Hong Kong and he has two even better in Australia in Happy Clapper (Aus) and Humidor (Aus), both rated 129. Tawkeel was the 35th Group 1 winner sired by a son of Galileo, who now has seven sons with 10 or more Northern Hemisphere stakes winners. Teofilo leads the way numerically from Frankel (GB) (49) and New Approach (Ire) (43), but given normal longevity we can expect Frankel to challenge Teofilo’s numbers at some point in the future.

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