by Natalie Voss|09.09.2023|11:47am When It Comes To Riding Fouls, What Are The Rules, Anyway? Andre Ramgeet didn’t get a leg up in the first race at Charles Town July 15 imagining it may be his last ride. He was aboard a horse called Monkey Wrench, an Isaac Barahona trainee he was told to take to the lead of the seven-furlong contest at the West Virginia track. The pair went […]
by Natalie Voss|09.08.2023|8:58pm Four Racetrack Veterinarians On Probation As Part Of Agreement With California Board; Violations Could Include Medications Dispensed To Medina Spirit Four veterinarians, including the primary vet for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and others, have been placed on probation by the California Veterinary Medical Board. The stipulated settlements for Drs. Vince Baker, Ryan Carpenter, Sarah Graybill Jones, and Cathaleen Canfield were made public this summer and conclude accusations brought against them in 2021 and […]
by Natalie Voss|09.07.2023|9:10pm HIWU Catches Trainers Up On Environmental Contamination, Electrolytes, And Test Barn Policy On Sept. 7, officials from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) together with the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) held the first in a series of videoconferences aimed at answering horsemen’s questions about the new national regulations. Although billed as a town hall, the presentation involved officials fielding questions about anti-doping and medication […]
by Natalie Voss|09.06.2023|10:26pm Are Genetics To Blame For Breakdowns? It’s Not That Simple, Epidemiologist Says In the wake of Saratoga’s race meet, which made headlines for high-profile fatalities in Grade 1 races, racing fans and stakeholders have asked each other — what else can be done to improve equine safety? As pre-race veterinary checks have increased and medication use has become more restricted, many people have shifted their focus toward […]
by Natalie Voss|09.06.2023|10:18pm From The Brink Of Death, Former Neglect Case Shines En Route To Thoroughbred Makeover In the spring of 2021, Lonnie Winkelspecht came upon then-4-year-old filly Hoosier Artist in her worst hour. “She was basically laying in a mud puddle,” Winkelspecht remembered. “She couldn’t get up. “She had a body score of a 0. She was literally dying, laying there.” Winkelspecht had been called in to help move and stabilize […]
by Natalie Voss|09.05.2023|1:44pm Dead Horse’s Medical Records Cast Light On Baffert’s Evolving Relationship With Betamethasone After the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert prohibited the use of the corticosteroid betamethasone for joint injections of horses in his barn. Or did he? The racing industry has heard Baffert run through his narrative of the days after he found out Medina Spirit had a positive test for betamethasone following […]
by Natalie Voss|08.28.2023|9:47pm Research In Action: Grayson-Jockey Club Findings Have Changed Our Reaction To EHV Possibly the only thing more unsettling than being a horse owner experiencing an infectious disease outbreak on their farm is to be a veterinarian who experiences one. That was the case for Dr. Trisha Dowling, professor of veterinary clinical pharmacology at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2008, Dowling took a […]
by Natalie Voss|08.24.2023|3:37pm Attorneys: Track Relationship With State Racing Commissions Complicates Facility’s Right To Exclude Trainers For the last two years, the topic of racetrack bans against trainers has been widely discussed among people who are both fans of horse racing and legal minutiae. The subject was a focus of one session at the recent Racing And Gaming Conference at Saratoga, where four attorneys examined the question of how these exclusions […]
by Natalie Voss|08.24.2023|3:25pm ‘I Couldn’t Give Up On Him’: After Battle With EPM, OTTB Is En Route To The Makeover With A Junior Rider One of the worst acronyms a horse owner can hear their veterinarian utter is EPM – Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis. The neurological condition has stumped veterinary professionals for years, with symptoms that can wax and wane, and sometimes mimic those of other illnesses. When Erica Brown acquired 6-year-old That Dude (fondly known as Ace) off the […]
by Natalie Voss|08.24.202308.24.2023|3:17pm3:17pm Louisiana Commission Investigating After Owner Appears To Admit Program Training It started with a Facebook post. The Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association made a post on Aug. 18 congratulating the connections of M CR Pilotos, who won the seventh race at Delta Downs the previous night. According to Equibase, M CR Pilotos is owned by A and J Running Horses (James A. Copeland) and conditioned […]