Category: Trainers Corner

Ninth horse dies at Santa Anita

Santa Anita had its ninth death of the racing and training season when Chosen Vessel became the fourth fatality on the track’s turf course Saturday due to a fractured left front ankle. The season started on Dec. 26. The 5-year-old gelding was pulled up by jockey Edwin Maldonado as he approached the far turn in the ninth and final race of the card, a 1 1/8 mile turf race for allowance horses for a purse of $59,000. This is the first fatality for trainer Craig Dollase since the horse death situation became critical early last year. Last

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Ultrasound-based scoring system predicts horses’ recovery from tendon injury

A new technique that uses ultrasound findings to predict a racehorse’s likelihood of returning to racing after a tendon injury has been described by researchers. The study team say the new system will significantly improve racehorse welfare in both the short and long term. It will enable vets and racehorse trainers to make early and informed decisions on a horse’s future – whether to prescribe rest and recovery before racing again, rehabilitation for another career, or immediate retirement. The ultrasound technique was developed by researchers at the University of Nottingham and Oakham Equine Hospital, both in England,

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The Frustrations of White Line Disease

The term white line disease is actually a misnomer; the white line (the soft, fibrous inner layer of the hoof wall) itself is not affected. Rather, the infection takes hold in the area just in front of the epidermal laminae (the sensitive tissues that attach to the hoof wall and help suspend the coffin bone within the hoof capsule).

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The Importance of Limb Conformation

Conformation standards provide the closest thing to such a blueprint; conventional wisdom holds that conformation faults—deviations from the ideal proportions of the horse’s limbs and body and relationship of these parts to one another—can increase risk of injury and decrease performance ability. 

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