Calder Breakdown - Race 5 on 6/4

[aharon5741]

I was out at Calder yesterday and saw this go down from about 30 feet away, it was just gruesome. What makes a horse just drop dead after running for 200 yards? Racing must do something to try to decrease the amount of these catastrophic breakdowns.

I have heard from various sources that the incidence rate of breakdowns in Australia is something like 1/10 of the rate here in America. Does anyone have more informaiton on why this is true?

Thankfully I was by myself that day, if I brought a friend they would probabbly never go back to the track again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By4_gJsRkZk

[miesque]

Not to split hairs or get too gruesome on a deary, rainy Friday morning, but there is a difference between a horse dropping dead and breaking down. When a horse drops dead while running its usually due to a heart attack or brain aneurism and has absolutely nothing to do wtith the surface whereas a breakdown (aka a shattered sesamoid) is impact related (or taking a misstep) and the surface could potentially be a contributing factor. Based the manner in which the horse in question nosedived into the ground (if a horse has a heart attack it doesn't try to catch itself - its why those falls are most especially dangerous to the rider), the announcers comments that the horse was still there as they came down the stretch and your comment that the horse dropped dead so I assume it wasn't moving much other then a few twitches, if at all after the fall. Horses can "drop dead" from heart attacks in other equine endeavors such as fox hunting, eventing and polo (seen a few polo heart attacks, pretty ugly stuff). Now there are some medications out there which could increase the risk of heart attacks, but thats a different discussion.

[Tampa Russ]

Horse clipped heels of another.

[FenceBored]

Let's try that video again.

By4_gJsRkZk

Neither breakdown nor heart attack.

"ANGEL MADE clipped heels with RUN JAMAICAN'S RUN entering the first turn and fell. There was a stewards inquiry into the incident on the first turn... . This action appeared to have no effect on the outcome and the race was made official." - Equibase chart for Calder 06/04/2009 race 5.

[miesque]

Sorry, from the posters remark I totally didn't think about clipped heels coupled with the brief bit I had seen, I went down a path to a different conclusion.

[aharon5741]

Thanks for clearing that up, I guess I just assumed the worst. Should have looked at the results chart. Also shouldn't just listen to what people are saying at the track.

[FenceBored]

Anybody heard anything about Jose Garcia's condition? It looks to me like he might have been stepped on. He was off his mounts the rest of the day, for what that's worth.

And then, of course, there's Angel Made.

[Citation1947]

Yep it appears that the rider of the #1 horse cut over into the path of the #2 horse going into the first turn causing the #2 horse to clip heels. I wonder if the rider of the #1 horse will get 30 days like Jamie Theriot did.

[wildcats]

wildcats

i was at turfway for simu. i did not know what happened in the race.
but i had 3 tickets on 9 & 7 exacta and on the screen they showed results
of 9 -1-8 and official popedup. i saw 9-7-1. and thought i was screwed
out of anice exacta. they changed it to 9-7-1 thanks goodness but i thought once they said official it was over.

[SmartyLane]

did the horse have to be euthanized?