It’s a sad day for the Horse racing industry. Early signs of tendonitis in the left knee have persuaded the trainers and owner of the Derby and Preakness winner to end the racing career of I’ll Have Another. A hard race at a 1 1/2 miles would create too much of a risk for the horse to incur a life threatening injury.
“Trainer Doug O’Neill said he first noticed something might be wrong with the colt Thursday, hours after his usual morning gallop.
“We prayed he kind of hit himself and that it was a little bit of skin irritation,” he told a horde of media gathered outside the detention barn at Belmont Park.
O’Neill had called an audible Friday and taken his horse out to gallop at 5:30 a.m., three hours earlier than he had been working out in the days leading up to the race. He wanted to avoid the congestion created by all the Belmont horses going to the track at the same time.
“I thought he looked great on the track,” he said, “and then cooling out, you could tell that swelling was back, and at that point I didn’t feel very good.”
A veterinarian confirmed the diagnosis and suggested that O’Neill give the colt three to six months off before resuming training. But O’Neill said he and his brother, along with Reddam and his wife, were unanimous in deciding to retire the colt who had won four consecutive Grade 1 races, starting with the Santa Anita Derby in April.
Dr. Larry Bramlage, on-call veterinarian for the Belmont, said it wouldn’t hurt I’ll Have Another to walk on the track “but would be a concern at a mile-and-a-half at full speed.”
He compared the problem to an Achilles tendon injury, which usually keeps a person off his feet for six weeks.
“This one to the horse is nowhere near that severity,” he said, “but it takes the same amount of time to rehab it.”
Bramlage said it probably would take a year for the colt to recover. He added that a tendon in a racehorse is “more highly evolved” than anything in a human.
O’Neill said I’ll Have Another would return to his home base at Betfair Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif., in the next few days. from espn.com
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