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MRI Study Hopes To Turn Skeptics Into Believers

Efforts to stop racehorse breakdowns have increased exponentially in the past decade, with many high-tech tools being brought into play. The learning curve on these advanced diagnostics can be steep and additional complexities surface when veterinarians are expected to draw conclusions from current images without access to previous medical records: Something that may appear “significant” on an image may be an old, non-issue to the horse, reports Thoroughbred Daily News.

A study funded by the Oak Tree Charitable Foundation will be launched in Southern California to help racetrack veterinarians who use MRIs decipher what the images are telling them. The study will use 23 Thoroughbreds Dr. Tim Grande, the chief official veterinarian of the California Horse Racing Board, has deemed lame in their fetlock. The lame horses will be chosen from a pool of horses that are a morning-of or race-day scratch; those that are lame in the test barn or after a scheduled work or race; or those that have a voided claim.

A group of 23 control horses that show no signs of lameness will also be used; these horses will be similar in age, sex, and class to the lame horses. Researchers will be looking for changes in density within the proximal sesamoid bones and distal cannon bone, swelling in the cannon bone, and bone bruising. Each of these relates to fetlock failure and condylar fracture.

Though the MRI is not new, there is still skepticism about what it can “tell” veterinarians. Researchers hope the study will increase belief in the machine's ability to assist horses and their owners.

Medal Count Pensioned From Stud Duty, Offered For Adoption At New Vocations

The 10-year-old Medal Count has been pensioned from stud duty and now appears on the website of Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance-accredited rehoming group New Vocations. The now-gelded son of Dynaformer earned just shy of half a million dollars on the racetrack, and was retired to stand at Spendthrift Farm in 2016. He has stood the past two seasons in Ohio at Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm.

Medal Count's oldest foals are 4-year-olds of 2021. His leading earner is the Arkansas-bred filly Hissy Missy, a winner in two of her 13 career starts for earnings of $175,532.

His advertisement on the New Vocations website reads: “Of a gold standard indeed, Medal Count is ready for his next career in his forever home! This well-traveled gelding earned nearly half a million dollars during his successful racing career, which included a Grade 3 stakes win and finishing in the money in several Grade 1 and Grade 2 stakes, including the Belmont Stakes (G1)! He stood at stud for several years before being gelded and entering our program to start his third career.

“One of Medal Count's first transitions in our program was figuring out turnout with a buddy! He's done well with this task and goes out during the day with our resident babysitter, Ranger. He loves to stretch his legs and enjoys some snacking, but he's overall quite relaxed and content outside.

“Around the barn, you can often find Medal Count sticking his head out of his stall, taking in all the action, or resting quietly. He can be shy and aloof at first, but he is happy to get one-on-one time when he gets individualized attention. Medal Count has spent some time getting used to new environments and building his confidence with us; he can be a bit of a cowardly lion at times!

“Under saddle, Medal Count is a bit nervous as he is figuring out his new job in the ring. We see loads of potential in him (check out his free lunge video!), but he is just working on relaxing under saddle at the moment. He will do best with an advanced rider who is confident and can guide Medal Count through the process as he learns to relax and get back into shape with his next career.”

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Canada May Face Veterinary Drug Shortage In 2022

The Canadian Animal Health Institute recently issued a warning of impending difficulty in obtaining many veterinary medications.

A 2017 change in veterinary drug regulation limited what drugs could be accessed in Canada and veterinarians are preparing to feel the fallout. Rising shipping costs and pandemic-related shortages are also not helping matters of accessibility, nor is the uptick of penicillin use in human medicine.

Canada imports nearly 95 percent of the vaccines used in veterinary medicine. Accessibility of drugs is a major concern for Canadian vets that is expected to become more problematic. One proposed solution involves allowing for the purchase of pharmaceuticals that are approved in other jurisdictions, like the United States and European Union.

UMN Researchers Studying Sudden Cardiac Death In Racehorses To Aide In Medina Spirit Investigation

University of Minnesota researchers will assist in investigating the death of famed Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, who collapsed and died on the racetrack Monday in Arcadia, California, of a suspected cardiac event.

The horse's necropsy—the animal equivalent of an autopsy—will be conducted at the University of California, Davis. But samples of hair, blood, and heart tissue are en route to the College of Veterinary Medicine's (CVM) Equine Genetics and Genomics Laboratory, where scientists studying cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in racehorses will apply their expertise to the overall picture of the 3-year-old colt's death.

Unlike the breakneck pace for which he was famous in life, the study of Medina Spirit's death will be slow and methodical. California racing authorities have said there is no timetable for necropsy results but that it could take months. The CVM researchers will release the results of their analysis to the California Horse Racing Board separately, and likely much later. Ultimately, to buttress the necropsy, the researchers hope to determine whether Medina Spirit had specific genetic factors putting him at risk for sudden cardiac death.

The CVM scientists, led by Assistant Professor Sian Durward-Akhurst and Professor Molly McCue, will also incorporate the Medina Spirit samples into an ongoing research project seeking to understand genetic and other risk factors for sudden cardiac death in racehorses. The researchers' goal is to identify horses at risk for sudden cardiac death—and to put tools into the hands of racetrack veterinarians that will allow them to identify those horses in time to scratch them from a race—in order to prevent future such tragedies. Those tools include an at-rest electrocardiogram (ECG) combined with artificial intelligence to identify horses likely to develop irregular heartbeats during a race—even if their resting ECG looks normal.

“Medina Spirit's death is devastating, and sadly, such deaths occur all too frequently,” Dr. McCue said. “Our hope is to find ways to pinpoint horses at risk so we can intervene before they lose their lives. In addition to helping equine athletes, this research may also provide answers for sudden cardiac death in young human athletes.”

McCue's lab has been studying horse genetic disease for nearly two decades. Durward-Akhurst and McCue have been working on sudden cardiac death in racehorses since 2015, when Durward-Akhurst was a PhD student, including creating with their collaborators the largest publicly available comprehensive catalog of equine genetic variation.

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