Seeing the pictures of the tornado damage at Churchill in no way prepared me for seeing the wreckage in person. The backstretch and the nearby neighborhood were studies in contrast: incredible destruction juxtaposed with pristine completeness. The tornado apparently made its way down the backstretch like an unruly two-year-old, leaping and touching down unpredictably and…
What a month for the Belmont Child Care Association! Like most racing organizations, it takes advantage of big racing events (in our case, the Belmont Stakes), but from start to finish, June has been a banner month at Anna House. It started with the ribbon cutting for the two new classrooms at Anna House, on…
As I said at the beginning of this marathon endeavor, I went to the Race Day Medication Summit mostly to learn and without any prior opinions on the use of Lasix. And after nearly nine hours of presentations and panels, I do feel like I learned a lot, but I’m not sure that I’m any…
I really hadn’t planned on dragging this recap out for a week…but we’ve finally reached the last two presentations from last week’s Race Day Medication Summit. Following the trainers’ discussion of managing EPIH, the veterinarians took the stage. Moderated by Dr. Scott Palmer, the panel included Dr. Scott Hay (U.S.); Dr. John McVeigh (SA, U.K.,…
The panel was moderated by John Kimmel, a New York-based trainer with a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Pennsylvania. Panelists were Christophe Clement (US/France); John Gosden (UK/AUS), Richard Mandella (US); Graham Motion (US); and John Size (HK/AUS). The presentation was organized around questions that Kimmel asked. This isn’t a transcript, but a…
As I wrote in my first post about this Monday summit, I came to it with little prior knowledge about the use of Lasix or about bleeding in horses. Given the length, detail, and number of the presentations, it would be impossible to capture everything that was said; I’m trying to distill what I found…
Doing this in small and, I hope, manageable bites, a presentation or two at a time. Following a morning in which the focus was on the basics of EIPH (exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage) and the effects of furosemide (Lasix/Salix), lunchtime and afternoon sessions were devoted to an exploration of international and North American perspectives on EIPH…
I don’t know a lot about medication in horses. I’m neither a vet, nor a scientist, nor a horsewoman. For these reasons, I haven’t had much of an opinion on race day medications in horses, leaving those decisions to those better informed than I. And for these reasons, I spent the first day of my…
It feels both fitting and exhausting that the school year comes to an end just as the Triple Crown does. I’m sitting today in my last full day of end-of-year meetings; yesterday, I published my final post at BelmontStakes.com; early Sunday afternoon, I filed my last Triple Crown race story for Thoroughbred Times. Since late…
Heading into Belmont weekend, the horse Colin is getting a lot of love. Of course, over at Colin’s Ghost, Kevin Martin has done several recent posts on the namesake of website; in 2008, he did a series of posts on the undefeated horse, commemorating the 100th anniversary of his win in the Belmont Stakes. I…
Brooklyn Backstretch 