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Graded Stakes Winner Silverfoot Euthanized At 20

Silverfoot, the aptly-named gelding who became a fan favorite in turf marathons at tracks in Kentucky and throughout the Midwest, was euthanized Tuesday morning at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital due to complications of aging and the debilitating hoof disease laminitis. He was 20 and had been spending the past decade in retirement, most recently at Ballyrankin Stud in Lexington.

Bred by owner Stephanie Clark and campaigned in the name of her Chrysalis Stables, Silverfoot won 11 of 40 starts spread over 10 seasons with trainer Dallas Stewart, earning $949,503 before his 2010 retirement.

“Silverfoot was a true champion,” Clark said. “I owe him so much. He gave me so many heartfelt moments.”

Silverfoot's five graded-stakes victories included three straight in Churchill Downs' Grade 3 Louisville Handicap at 1 3/8 miles, starting with his stakes debut in 2004. His richest score came in Kentucky Downs' $200,000 Kentucky Cup Turf in 2005, when he defeated the Grade 3, 1 1/2 mile stakes' two-time winner Rochester by 6 3/4 lengths. After missing his entire 7-year-old season with an injury, Silverfoot returned at age 8 to win Arlington Park's Grade 3 Stars and Stripes. His last of six stakes victories overall came as a 9-year-old in Arlington Park's Tin Man Stakes.

While not the best horse in his division, the gelding became one of the most popular, with his longevity and striking almost-white coat, flowing flaxen tail, and normally a late running style. It was largely all or nothing with Silverfoot, who accrued one second and two thirds in his long career while racing against America's top turf horses. His second came by only three-quarters of a length to 2004 Breeders' Cup Turf winner Better Talk Now in Monmouth Park's Grade 1 United Nations in 2005, a race in which Silverfoot uncharacteristically found himself on the lead in a race devoid of pace.

“Very sad to hear,” Stewart said of Silverfoot's passing. “He was and is truly one of my favorites.”

Silverfoot was foaled at and spent much of his retirement in a life of leisure on Ann Britt's Maresgate Farm in Finchville. The horse came by his ethereal coloring honestly, being a son of the roan or gray turf champion With Approval (a son of the gray Caro) and out of Clark's roan mare Northern Silver, herself a daughter of the silver-looking Silver Ghost.

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Misread Tattoo Causes Confusion In Maryland: Rescued Mare Is Not Saskawea

A recently rescued Thoroughbred mare in Maryland has left quite a few people puzzled over the past few days. According to an article on Canadian Thoroughbred, she was originally believed to be the Canadian earner of over $750,000, Saskawea. When the story started to circulate, racing fans immediately took notice.

The mare now named Quizzical Quartz was saved from a neglectful situation by Days End Horse Rescue in 2019. Due to a mistake when reading her lip tattoo to try to identify her and the fact that the two horses had almost identical markings, they incorrectly came to the conclusion that she was the Ontario-bred 16-year-old stakes winner by Stormy Atlantic, Saskawea. This was quickly checked by Canadian Thoroughbred and proven to be false.

After Canadian Thoroughbred tracked down the last known owner of Saskawea through public auction records, Tommy Wente of St. Simon's Place in Lexington, Ky was not pleased upon hearing of the mistake made in regards to the mare he purchased for $2,500 at the Keeneland January sale in 2017. He went on to mention that she does not have foals anymore, but has had embryos flushed and surrogate mares producing Quarter Horse foals.

Days End Horse Rescue took action within an hour of being notified and apologized for the misunderstanding.

“We so regret there was an impact to Tommy, he was getting calls,” said DeEtte Hillman, Equine Programs Director for Days End, to Canadian Thoroughbred's Jennifer Morrison. “We had supplied all the content for the story, nothing appeared in print and it has since been re-written.”

Quizzical Quartz is now thriving in her next career as a riding horse with her adopter, Devon Griffin.

Broodmare Field Turned Training Center: Michelle Nihei’s Story Of Success

Michelle Nihei's Circle 8 Ranch was originally nothing more than an old broodmare field with unseen potential according to Thoroughbred Racing Commentary. When she laid eyes on it, it became a series of furlongs and gallop sets in her mind, and would eventually contribute to her multiple graded stakes wins as a trainer.

The broodmare field eventually turned into a one mile circuit that Nihei has her horses complete three times as part of their daily training and a six-furlong left-handed reseeded turf course. She has seen great results with this facility. The horses are more relaxed and happy and not quite as high strung as you might see on the racetrack.

“When they go back to the racetrack after a couple of months,” said Nihei to Thoroughbred Racing Commentary's Patrick Lawrence Gilligan. “everyone who has ridden them both before and after says it is remarkable how much stronger they are and how much better they takes the turns because now they know how to lift that shoulder instead of just flattening around the turn.”

Nihei was born in Calgary in Western Canada. Her father was a scientist and her mother was a lawyer. Before she began her career in the Thoroughbred industry, Nihei followed in her father's footsteps as a neuroscientist.

Nihei eventually realized she wanted to ride horses for a living instead of neuroscience and made the switch from lab coats to jeans and a helmet by becoming an exercise rider and then assistant to Todd Pletcher. She had the opportunity to gallop some of Pletcher's most well known horses like Scat Daddy, English Channel, and Pollards Vision.

“It was an amazing fantastic experience,” said Nihei to Gilligan. “Everything I know about breezing horses I learnt from Angel Cordero and Johnny Velasquez. I was getting on ten a day sometimes. It was the best education you could get.”

Eventually a riding injury caused her to take a step back from exercise riding and led her to becoming a trainer. That is how she ended up in the presence of her future Grade 1 winner, Prince Will I Am. Michelle still rides Prince Will I Am to this day and now refers to him as her Prince Charming.

Kentucky, New York Move Toward Tougher Restrictions On Clenbuterol

Trainers in several states could soon contend with tougher restrictions on the administration of clenbuterol, a bronchodilator prescribed for respiratory issues which veterinarians say can be misused. At a Dec. 1 meeting of the Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council (EDRC), committee members passed a proposed rule change for the drug which would move administration time from 14 days pre-race to 21 days pre-race, with a requirement the horse be tested for the substance before being cleared to run.

Clenbuterol is a beta-2 agonist which is known as an effective solution for horses battling respiratory ailments — a particularly common problem in racetrack barns which often have poor ventilation. Like other beta-2 agonists, however, it can also decrease body fat and increase muscle mass, particularly by converting slow twitch muscle to fast twitch muscle when used repeatedly.

At a September meeting of the EDRC, Kentucky Horse Racing Commission equine medical director Dr. Bruce Howard revealed that nearly 100 percent of Kentucky-based horses from trainers currently under federal indictment showed signs of clenbuterol administration when they were hair tested. Howard has also seen instances of veterinarians prescribing the drug to every horse in the barn.

The measure to move back the drug's administration time was not without debate. Dr. Andy Roberts, member of the EDRC and longtime Standardbred veterinarian, raised concerns about the harness population's ability to treat horses for illness under a 21-day withdrawal.

“I don't want to diminish the concerns about clenbuterol, because I think it's not illegitimate to want to control its administration to legitimate therapeutic purposes, however I think the Standardbreds are taking it quite strongly in the shorts in this because our horses race every week,” said Roberts. “There's almost no opportunity to put horses on clenbuterol already. Several other states already recognize this and have shorter withdrawals on clenbuterol.”

Roberts asked Howard whether out-of-competition testing at Red Mile had detected any clenbuterol use thus far, and Howard said it had not.

“That's because you've taken the drug out of my hands on a therapeutic basis,” said Roberts, who also maintained that the repartitioning effect of clenbuterol on muscle lasts for 11 days. “Passing rules based on speculation that somebody else is doing something — and I say this specifically from a Standardbred point of view because these horses are in to go often enough that you have already severely limited my ability to use this drug properly. People would rather leave horses sick and end up with pleural pneumonia than treat them with clenbuterol. That means we are over-regulating it.”

The 21-day window is based on the limit of detection by drug testing laboratories tasked with finding clenbuterol in a horse's urine sample. Blood and urine tests would be used to clear a horse to race after clenbuterol administration. Hair samples would show clenbuterol administration for up to six to twelve months after administration, but are highly variable depending on hair growth rates.

All EDRC committee members except Roberts voted for the increased restriction.

The vote comes a day after commissioners in New York expressed an interest in restricting clenbuterol use there, too. The Daily Racing Form reported the New York State Gaming Commission voted to require veterinarians to seek permission from the equine medical director before administering the drug, and that horses receiving clenbuterol must pass drug tests showing it has cleared the system before being permitted to run. That is similar to rule language being considered in other Mid-Atlantic states. In Canada, clenbuterol administration was pushed out to 28 days pre-race earlier this year. The American Quarter Horse Association announced a zero tolerance policy on clenbuterol in 2014, which has subsequently been picked up by several states where Quarter Horse racing is a central part of the calendar.

Experts have raised concerns about the potential for clenbuterol abuse for years, but the drug has made more headlines this year, as influential trainers like Mark Casse have called it one of the “most abused drug in our industry.”

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