Bad Bows and Good Bows

BOWED TENDON AND BOW OUT

We had it all planned out: Ellie would head south and not miss any training this spring;  she had grown up and, more importantly, she seemed to have matured between her 3 and 4 year old years; we now knew she would be a router and not a sprinter so we could get her ready accordingly.  Yup we had it all planned out.

Then we get “the call”.  Well, not THE call, but a crappy one none-the-less.  Her trainer had come in that morning and felt some heat just below her knee.  She was a bit tender but not enough to take a bad step.  Still, it bore watching so we waited and the first few days it seemed like maybe she just slept on herself wrong.  Then the heat and soreness were back and an ultrasound was done.

She bowed a tendon.

A human way to think of it is tendonitis or a tendon tear.  However you look at it, though, it is NOT good for a racehorse.  The prescription?  Ninety days of stall rest and then a slow resumption of activity in after taking another picture to make sure that the damage is healed.

As a Minnesota bred who probably can’t compete in open company outside of the state you might as well have told us her career was over.  Which it now is.

There is no way that we could have her back for this season and that meant another full year on the bench and it wasn’t fair to her partners to put them through that.  Who knows what would happen to this poor, snakebit mare next!?  She had a tough season at 2 with shins, she didn’t do well at 3 and now, with her 4-year old season closed, it’s time to find her a new job.  We’ll get her rehabbed and then we will see what the future has in store for her.  It’s part of our responsibility as owners and one that we take seriously.

TAKE A BOW FOR YOUR DEBUT

Mr. Lexis was purchased privately out of California a few weeks ago and shipped to trainer Clay Brinson at Hawthorne Race Course.  Mr. Lexis is a lightly raced 4-year old gelding out of the Valid Appeal mare Tracy V and sired by Badge of Silver.  He was bred by former Governor Brereton Jones in KY and sold for $45,000 at Keeneland.

He went and raced in Peru where he missed by a neck in a Grade 1 as a maiden but did finally break his maiden in South America and followed that up with an allowance win before shipping to the US to work under trainer Peter Miller.

After 10 starts at Santa Anita and Del Mar without a win against allowance and mid-level claimers, we picked him up and sent him east where he looks to make his first start Saturday in a conditioned allowance over the turf at Hawthorne.  He was installed as the tepid 7/2 morning line favorite so we should get a pretty good handle on what this group has on its hands.

When one door closes, another opens.  The door has closed on Ellie but now opens for Mr Lexis.  The racing cycle rolls on.