Saratoga: DeVaux cheers emotional win with Dr. Agne

Dr. Agne, named for a pioneering equine podiatrist who died 10 years ago, rallied to finish first on debut in a $100,000 maiden race for 2-year-olds Friday at Saratoga in one of the most emotional wins anywhere this year.

Trainer Cherie DeVaux was a friend of the late Dr. Bob Agne and helped him look after the colt’s Eclipse Award-winning dam Lady Eli through a successful recovery from life-threatening laminitis.

Watching in the grandstand Friday, DeVaux raised her arms in triumph when the race ended, and then she hugged Carrie Agne, the doctor’s widow, in a long embrace.

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“This is the first time that Carrie and I actually met,” DeVaux said in the winner’s circle. “She was trying to get here. Saratoga is hard to navigate when you don’t really know where you’re going, so she was a little bit late and got here three minutes to post. So really we just met and just a great moment to share with her. ... I’m not really an emotional person, but this Lady Eli with Dr. Agne was kind of a full-circle moment for me.”

Sent off at odds of 7-2, Dr. Agne settled near the back of the eight-horse field in the seven-furlong test, which was one of four races moved off the turf and onto the main track Thursday.

Catching up with tiring pacesetter Jet Off (14-1), jockey José Ortiz tipped Dr. Agne out in the stretch and ran on to win by one length. Post-time favorite Epic Desire (2-1) finished second, and Orbit (4-1) came in third.

The winning time was 1:25.97 after early fractions of 22.90, 46.19 and 1:12.19.

The Into Mischief colt owned by Madaket Stables, Twin Brook Stables and Belladonna Racing was named for Agne of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital. He worked closely with DeVaux when she was an assistant to Lady Eli’s trainer Chad Brown. Lady Eli could not race between July 2015 and August 2016 after she stepped on a nail and got laminitis.

“She was medically over what caused the laminitis and got that quieted down. They needed to do the podiatry work. That’s what got her back to the races,” DeVaux said this week on Horse Racing Nation’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. “The acute care was medical, but then after that, everything’s podiatry-driven with shoeing. (Agne and Dr. Bryan Fraley) did have a hand in the medication, but it’s all in the shoeing. I learned a ton from this case because I’d never dealt a laminitis case.”

DeVaux said Agne and Fraley visited Lady Eli regularly to help get her back on the track.

“Dr. Agne was there weekly because he had relocated to Saratoga to start a podiatry program here at Rood and Riddle,” DeVaux said. “Dr. Fraley was coming bi-weekly, because he was flying in from Lexington (Ky.). They were touching base every week and changing her shoeing every week and changing her plan of care every week based on how she was responding to what they were doing.”

Lady Eli returned to the track and become the champion turf female of 2017. A year later she was auctioned for $4.2 million.

The last time DeVaux saw Agne was in 2015.

“Late August or early September, I remember Dr. Agne just had his hand up on his truck, and he says this is my last time. (Lady Eli) is cleared to go get turned out,” DeVaux said. “I kind of joked with him. I said, well, I hope we get to see each other, because now we’re friends now, but I don’t want to see you under these circumstances, Maybe when I’m up in Saratoga, we can all meet up under better circumstances. He got killed a couple days later riding his bike, cycling on (Labor) Day.”

Agne, 54, died killed Sept. 7, 2015, while riding his bicycle on a highway in Paulet, Vt. State police said he was struck by a car that veered out of its highway lane when the driver fell asleep.

DeVaux had been in contact with Carrie Agne to let her know how she wanted to pay tribute to the late veterinarian.

“I called to get her blessing before I did name the horse, because I just didn’t feel right doing that without her blessing,” DeVaux said Wednesday. “We’ve kept her in the loop about it, so it’ll be an emotional day, win, lose or draw. Hopefully, he has a good showing him himself, and he has a bright future ahead, because he doesn’t understand he’s got a lot riding on it.”

Bred in Kentucky by Hill ’n’ Dale, Dr. Agne was sold for $185,000 in September at the Keeneland yearling sale.