I've Been Hoping, Praying He Would Stay Injury Free
From the I’ll Have Another Press Conference:
Trainer Doug O’Neill:
“It has been an incredible ride and an incredible run. I’ve taken so many notes, a lot of mental notes, I know we’re going to be back here again.
I know some people have asked if I thought the detention barn had anything to do with this. And absolutely not. It was just a freakish thing. He has been shown a little bit of, you know he’s been a little quiet the last few days of galloping, but his legs have been great.
Yesterday, he galloped great, but in the afternoon we noticed some loss of definition in his left front leg. To which, like every other owner and trainer we prayed he just kind of hit himself and it was just a little bit of skin irritation. We did him up in a special poultice. This morning he looked great, so I thanked the racing gods there.
And we did just a little easy gallop with him today. I thought he looked great on the track. Cooling out, you could tell the swelling was back. At that point I didn’t feel very good. At that point I talked to Mr. Reddam and immediately we got Dr. Hunt over here.
He scanned him and said it was just the start of tendinitis in his left front tendon. And you know you could give him 3 to 6 months and start back with him. But he’s done so much, it was unanimous between the Reddams, and my brother and I and everyone at the barn to retire him.
It is a bummer, far from tragic, but it is very disappointing.”
Owner J. Paul Reddam:
I just want to thank Doug and his entire team for the great care they’ve given this horse. It was a hell of a run. I know they’re all personally very disappointed, of course that he didn’t get to show his stuff for tomorrow. We tried to be quiet, but really I thought he was going to run off and show something. We were all a bit shocked, but we have to do what’s best for the horse. If he can’t compete at the top level, he’s done enough, and Doug, Thank You.
Trainer Doug O’Neill:
Well, a bowed tendon, you get a big old profile and it’s an advanced tendon. You actually have a large lesion in the core of the tendon. Could he run and compete, yes. Would it be in his best interests, no.
He’s been doing great. It was just a freakish thing. I think when you’ve got a human or equine athlete and you give 110% every time, there is a chance of injury. I’ve been hoping and praying he would stay injury free.
Moderator: Did you have any concerns before bringing him out this morning?
Trainer Doug O’Neill:
If he didn’t look 100% this morning I wouldn’t have, but you know after yesterday afternoon, the intent was to take him out real early when it was quiet. One of the negatives to this detention barn is that at 8:30 everyone’s heading out, and you’ve got 10-12 horses all trying to go to the track, all trying to be on the washrack. So I wanted a real quiet time with him. He looked great this morning. He trained great. But when I saw the swelling come up after the training, then, you know…
Owner J. Paul Reddam:
It should just be clear that yesterday afternoon, before any of this came up, the decision was made that he was going to have an easy morning, and come out early and stress free and just jog around the track for Saturday. So, it wasn’t like he had an injury and Doug took him out for a test drive this morning. That was not the case. He had a little heat. It was gone. He was good this morning. It was probably because he was treated for the race on Thursday. It was just after that, Doug called, and we just discussed, OK, we had this problem, should we look at it?
I said, well, if you look at it, the vet comes over and you’ll have a lot of attention, but what the heck. That’s what’s best for the horse. So that’s what he did. Just to be precautionary, we’ll scan the tendon. It’s a good thing he did scan it. And that’s when he found the problem.
The horse is not lame. He could have run tomorrow. You wouldn’t have known the difference had he not looked at it. Doug, through extreme caution about the horse, had the vet come over and scan him.