Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Updates
Mr Fantasy will have roughly one more week on stall rest then be injected
Phosphorescent was looked at again by Dr. Allday last week, and he couldn't really find anything. However, Dale was bothered by how bad the last race was. He wants to see Phosphorescent gallop strongly for a little while longer before breezing him. Dale said he'd like to breeze him within the next week if Phosphorescent strings together good gallops early this week. We're going to be hard pressed to make the end of the Churchill meet, but we'll see if he can breeze early next week .
The Defense Rests moved to Goodwin Farm this week. He will be on stall rest there for the next thirty days as we let his pinfired shins cool out.. We took video of him this week at Goodwin. Please click here to see the video.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Updates ( not the best of news)
COURTESY OF NYRA
We thought we could get Tom/Josh and Jacob to round up the moose and get it to run in "WestPoint" colours during the Saratoga meet. Just joking Terry!
Now in all seriousness:
Terry had a chance to talk to Dr. Baker over the weekend while in Kentucky and get a full update.
Dr. Baker xrayed Mr. Fantasy's knees and ankles. His knees while a bit tender, were fine. He did, however, discover small chips in Mr. Fantasy's left front and right hind ankle. They went ahead and put him under anesthesia and removed the chips. While they had him under, they looked at the other two ankles to clean them up of any loose bodies. There were no chips in the other ankles, just bone flakes.
The chip removal went routinely. Dr. Baker did find some grooving on the bottom Mr. Fantasy's cannon bones. In other words, the bone was showing some signs up wearing down. If we had not stopped now, we could have ruined Mr. Fantasy. Fortunately, we took the more cautious approach and were able to discover this early.
Next stepsMr. Fantasy will be on stall rest for two weeks. After stall rest, Baker will inject his ankles with hyaluronic acid to make sure the fluid in the joint runs clean.
Two to three weeks after injection, Dr. Baker will come out and pinfire Mr. Fantasy's shins. He did see the inflammation there, so we will take care of that.
During the down time, Mr. Fantasy will undergo something called IRAP (Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist Protein) treatment. IRAP is used to combat osteoarthritis and joint degeneration. IRAP blocks the Interlukin-1 protein from causing the inflammation that creates bone degradation. Attached, please find a great article on IRAP from the University of Florida veterinary school. It is a fairly new, exciting and effective procedure.
The grooving on the cannon bones essentially adds 30-40 more days off for Mr. Fantasy beyond our original timetable. Dr. Baker said the more time we could give him the better, so he will be out of training until about November 1st.
After November 1st we will most likely send Mr. Fantasy directly to Florida. We could start him on the aquacizer at Vinery in Florida to start getting him legged up without putting stress on his joints. We would then likely send him to Kiaran at Palm Meadows just before the new year.
Prognosis:The prognosis for Mr. Fantasy is good. We would ideally have loved for there to have been no associated grooving on the cannon bone, but we caught things early. Kiaran does not throw around phrases like top horse easily, but he said to me yesterday, "This is a top horse. When we get him back he'll be a top horse in 2010." We believe Kiaran is right. We're not going to sugar coat things. This is a disappointment, but we're doing everything we can to make sure Mr. Fantasy is a top horse in the future.
Phosphorescent is scheduled to be looked at again by Dr. Allday this week as more of a matter of due diligence than anything. He wants to see if anything has changed since he evaluated him roughly ten days ago. Dale has purposely held off on breezing him until he got a second look from the vet. If everything checks out, then he will resume breezing.
This Defense Rests had a little filling in his tendon after breezing through the lane earlier this week. Kiaran had the tendon scanned and it came up clean. He simply has a little tendinitis. Kiaran called it akin to growing pains in a human being. There's nothing you need to do except let the horse get through it. As a result, we've sent The Defense Rests to Goodwin Farm in Saratoga. He will be there for 60 days then should resume training.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Updates
Terry and Kiaran discussed the plan for Mr. Fantasy going forward and her is what they have come up with. He is scheduled to van tomorrow to Fairlawn Farm in Kentucky where he will have 3-4 weeks to settle down and relax. He'll be able to "put his head down" and just walk and graze. This will also allow the hot spots found in the scan to cool out.
Dr. Baker will also take a look at him in person and to go over his scan. We will then most likely pinfire his shins and his ankles after he cools out to help tighten them up. We might also blister his knees. This would be done with the goal of getting him back into the training at the end of the summer.
He's an extremely talented horse, and we want to do the right thing for him to ensure he has the best chance to maximize that talent. We'll wait to see what Dr. Baker says, but this is what Kiaran has suggested to Terry.
Phosphorescent continues to come up clean after several evaluations. He will likely breeze in another week or so. We're going to have to draw a line through the last race. Dale would like to get one more race in before the end of the Churchill meet, and he would prefer the turf ideally. There is an "a other than" turf race going a mile and a sixteenth on July 4th that Dale is going to look at.
The Defense Rests was a standout at Kiaran's barn when we saw him at Belmont over the weekend. He's built like a tank and is extremely muscular throughout. He is scheduled to ship up to Saratoga today (Wednesday), and will continue training on with his workmate, Common Currency.
Click here to see video of him from Belmont Park.
Dr. Baker will also take a look at him in person and to go over his scan. We will then most likely pinfire his shins and his ankles after he cools out to help tighten them up. We might also blister his knees. This would be done with the goal of getting him back into the training at the end of the summer.
He's an extremely talented horse, and we want to do the right thing for him to ensure he has the best chance to maximize that talent. We'll wait to see what Dr. Baker says, but this is what Kiaran has suggested to Terry.
Phosphorescent continues to come up clean after several evaluations. He will likely breeze in another week or so. We're going to have to draw a line through the last race. Dale would like to get one more race in before the end of the Churchill meet, and he would prefer the turf ideally. There is an "a other than" turf race going a mile and a sixteenth on July 4th that Dale is going to look at.
The Defense Rests was a standout at Kiaran's barn when we saw him at Belmont over the weekend. He's built like a tank and is extremely muscular throughout. He is scheduled to ship up to Saratoga today (Wednesday), and will continue training on with his workmate, Common Currency.
Click here to see video of him from Belmont Park.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Mr Fantasy Update
Mr. Fantasy is back at Belmont after having his nuclear scintigraphy. He had a few "hot spots". An ankle, knee and shin lit up on one leg while an ankle and knee lit up in another leg. Fortunately, nothing too serious was found.
The recommended course of action is to simply give Mr. Fantasy some time. How much time? Good question, but one that we cannot really give an answer to at this point. This test sets a baseline for us so we can see where something might be bugging Mr. Fantasy. To base a timeline on that alone would be pure guesswork and speculation. However, we should have a better idea after about thirty days.
What are the next steps?
We will take about a week before we make any decisions.
There are three most likely potential courses of action.
Keep him with Kiaran but only lightly train him.
Send him to Kentucky so that he can get cardio work in through aqua training.
Send him to the farm in Saratoga and turn him out for a bit.
Wait and let time work its magic.
By having this test we're in a good position to evaluate where things stand moving forward. We're going to treat this colt like the graded stakes winner he is and do what it takes to ensure he has the longest and most successful career possible.
The recommended course of action is to simply give Mr. Fantasy some time. How much time? Good question, but one that we cannot really give an answer to at this point. This test sets a baseline for us so we can see where something might be bugging Mr. Fantasy. To base a timeline on that alone would be pure guesswork and speculation. However, we should have a better idea after about thirty days.
What are the next steps?
We will take about a week before we make any decisions.
There are three most likely potential courses of action.
Keep him with Kiaran but only lightly train him.
Send him to Kentucky so that he can get cardio work in through aqua training.
Send him to the farm in Saratoga and turn him out for a bit.
Wait and let time work its magic.
By having this test we're in a good position to evaluate where things stand moving forward. We're going to treat this colt like the graded stakes winner he is and do what it takes to ensure he has the longest and most successful career possible.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Updates
Mr. Fantasy had his nuclear scintigraphy late Wednesday afternoon to see if we can pinpoint what is bugging him. We will update you with the results as soon as they become available to us.
Dale has asked Dr. Allday to take a look at Phosphorescent's ankle following his last race, as he thought something might be bothering him. Dale has been poking and prodding at Phos, but has not found anything as of yet. Dale said Phos is scheduled to be seen by scanned by Dr. Allday to try to pinpoint exactly what's bothering him.
The Defense Rests has been as impressive as any two-year-old since shipping to the track.
Dale has asked Dr. Allday to take a look at Phosphorescent's ankle following his last race, as he thought something might be bothering him. Dale has been poking and prodding at Phos, but has not found anything as of yet. Dale said Phos is scheduled to be seen by scanned by Dr. Allday to try to pinpoint exactly what's bothering him.
The Defense Rests has been as impressive as any two-year-old since shipping to the track.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Mr. Fantasy - Status Update - June 1, 2009
From Terry
Just wanted to give you an up to the hour update on our colt.
I just talked to Kiaran from his barn at Belmont. He, along with his main assistant Artie, and the barn vet went over Mr. F. from head to toe this morning.
By way of review, late yesterday Kiaran instructed Artie to have the hind glue oneshoes removed just see what kind of difference that made. Our colt jogged on the road today better, but not perfect. He's a touch off right front and also a touch off left hind.
Bottom line, we, collectively made the right call by not pushing on here. These little issues almost always turn into large, and often career ending, injuries if adequate care and time is not given. I always tell myself this industry would be a whole lot easier if we were dealing with machines - we're not - we are dealing living, breathing creatures made of bone and muscle.
So, where do we go from here? We'll have this colt in to have a full body scintigraphy within the next 48 hours. The procedure should pinpoint exactly what is going on inside his body.
What's the most likely outcome? My guess is he has a strained muscle or bruised bone somewhere and a little time off and TLC will do the trick.
Over the years, we've found the most effective treatment for any horse is giving them time out of training. An old saying on the track "Either you give them time, or they will take it themselves" may very well ring true here with this colt.
I understand this is a disappointing turn of events for everyone involved. Please trust we will do everything in our power to get him back to the races so he can be all that he can be.
Just wanted to give you an up to the hour update on our colt.
I just talked to Kiaran from his barn at Belmont. He, along with his main assistant Artie, and the barn vet went over Mr. F. from head to toe this morning.
By way of review, late yesterday Kiaran instructed Artie to have the hind glue oneshoes removed just see what kind of difference that made. Our colt jogged on the road today better, but not perfect. He's a touch off right front and also a touch off left hind.
Bottom line, we, collectively made the right call by not pushing on here. These little issues almost always turn into large, and often career ending, injuries if adequate care and time is not given. I always tell myself this industry would be a whole lot easier if we were dealing with machines - we're not - we are dealing living, breathing creatures made of bone and muscle.
So, where do we go from here? We'll have this colt in to have a full body scintigraphy within the next 48 hours. The procedure should pinpoint exactly what is going on inside his body.
What's the most likely outcome? My guess is he has a strained muscle or bruised bone somewhere and a little time off and TLC will do the trick.
Over the years, we've found the most effective treatment for any horse is giving them time out of training. An old saying on the track "Either you give them time, or they will take it themselves" may very well ring true here with this colt.
I understand this is a disappointing turn of events for everyone involved. Please trust we will do everything in our power to get him back to the races so he can be all that he can be.
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