Court papers say vet gave Laoban ‘black shot’ that killed him
Breeding records filed in a federal case over disputed insurance money revealed Laoban suffered from arthritic pain and went five months without impregnating a broodmare when he was injected at WinStar Farm in Kentucky with a “black shot” that killed him in 2021.
The filing made late last week was first detailed by Natalie Voss in a Friday report at Paulick Report.
The 244 pages of paperwork made up the formal request for a summary judgment in favor of the North American Specialty Insurance Company. The Kansas City business is defending itself in eastern Kentucky federal court in Frankfort against what amounts to a life-insurance dispute made by Laoban’s owners Cypress Creek Equine and Southern Equine Stable.
The insurance firm argued that Laoban, who was 8 years old at the time, got a falsely clean bill of health before he was injected with vitamins intended to stimulate his sexual interest and make it less painful for him to breed. Instead, the shot proved to be lethal.
Lawyers for the company claimed Laoban “was diagnosed in February and March of 2021 with degenerative arthritis” as well as “mild tarsitis of the tarsometatarsal joint and distal intertarsal joint, a small spur of the cannon bone, mid-arthritic changes and impinging spinous process. ... Despite these diagnoses, Laoban was bred to over 120 mares in the 2021 breeding season.”
Working for WinStar, Dr. Heather Wharton was accused of giving Laoban the “black shot” of a cocktail of vitamins “on her own” May 24, 2021, two days after the stallion was described as “uninterested in breeding.” The vitamins were said to have come from packages with expiration dates going back as far as 2012, and Wharton was said to have injected “30 times the amount that triggers the warning to administer ‘slowly and with caution.’ ”
The insurance company’s lawyers went on to recall that “about 58 seconds after the injection, Laoban jolted toward a wall of his stall and violently rolled around for 10 seconds before collapsing. A WinStar groom discovered Laoban shortly after, at which time Dr. Wharton and Dr. (Natanya) Nieman were both notified that Laoban was down. This was the first time Dr. Nieman heard anything about the ‘vitamin shot’ or Dr. Wharton’s decision to administer the ‘black shot.’
“Dr. Wharton returned to the stall approximately six minutes after administering the injection and observed that Laoban (was) exhibiting all ‘major signs’ of anaphylactic shock. Dr. Wharton attempted to revive Laoban by administering two steroids but was unsuccessful. Laoban died shortly thereafter.”
In her report, Voss said Wharton got a 90-day Kentucky state suspension and was fined $30,000.
Laoban was described as showing a thorough disinterest in breeding “from October 2020 through March 2021, (when) WinStar’s breeding records periodically noted that Laoban ‘never covered mare,’ ‘mounted mare several times but never ejaculated,’ ‘appeared to show signs of pain and/or discomfort when attempting to breed” and “refused to breed mares.”
Voss’s report pointed out that Laoban, according to WinStar records, had successfully covered 126 mares earlier in the 2020 breeding season.
Laoban’s insurance policy started out at $750,000 in the spring of 2016, when he was in his final months of racing. It was increased to $5 million by the fall of 2020. The company says Cypress and Southern got at least $4.16 million in insurance payments.
There is no timetable for district judge Greg Van Tatenhove to issue a ruling on the insurance company’s request for summary judgment. The case has been in court since April 2022.
Trained by Eric Guillot, Laoban was a son of Uncle Mo who was retired from racing in 2016 after an 11th-place finish in the Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga. That was where he scored his only victory in nine starts, winning at 27-1 odds in the Jim Dandy (G2). In the 2016 Preakness, Laoban finished sixth.