Tense moment: George Washington, a 4-year-old colt, is restrained after suffering a leg injury. (Photo: A-Z Communications)
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OCEANPORT, N.J. — When an equine injury or death occurs at a racetrack, especially during a high-profile event like the Breeders' Cup Championships,
accurate reporting of health-status issues to the public is critical — perhaps as important as dealing with the injury itself,
says one of the nation's leading equine veterinarians.
Larry Bramlage, DVM , MS, Dipl. ACVS and a partner in Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., was one of two experts
serving as American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) "On Call" veterinarians at this year's Breeders' Cup races
at New Jersey's Monmouth Park racetrack Oct. 26 and 27.
He and the other AAEP "On Call" expert, Dr. C. Wayne McIlwraith, BVSc, PhD, FRCVS, DSc, Dr. med vet (hc), Dipl. ACVS, a professor
of surgery and director of the Orthopaedic Research Center at Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine &
Biological Sciences, were there to provide accurate veterinary information to broadcast and print media during the live-network
races.
Raising the curtain: Breeders' Cup track workers hurriedly set up a screen to block the view of spectators while the injured
horse, George Washington, was euthanized and taken away by ambulance. (Photo: A-Z Communications)
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That role thrust them to the forefront of a huge media event near the end of the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic — the featured
final race on the second day of the rain-soaked event — when George Washington, a 4-year-old Irish-bred colt, pulled up in
the stretch with a severe injury to the right front leg and was immediately euthanized behind a curtain, as Preakness winner
Curlin continued on to win the race by 4.5 lengths.
The horse suffered a lateral condylar fracture of the distal metacarpus, with a dislocated fetlock joint and biaxial proximal
sesamoid bone fractures, and the wound was open, McIlwraith tells DVM Newsmagazine.
Veterinary expertise: AAEP "On Call" veterinarians Larry Bramlage, center, and Wayne McIlwraith, right, with Breeders' Cup
Panel observer George Mundy, DVM. (Photo: A-Z Communications)
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"Before the horse could get pulled up, his fetlock dislocated and destroyed the soft tissue on the back, which destroyed the
blood supply, so there was no oxygen for repair. It was open into the dirt, so it's contaminated, and you can't get antibiotics
there because you don't have a blood supply, and you don't have blood to support repair," Bramlage explains. "It has to do
with the horse's anatomy and how really little blood supply they have in the lower part of the leg."
As the colt, bred by Barbaro owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, held up its injured leg, workers set up screens to block the
view of nearly 42,000 stunned spectators and managed to load the horse into an ambulance behind the screens.
George Washington had dropped from fifth place at the half-mile point to seventh at the time of his injury.
"Typically, these injuries occur in the last part of the race," McIlwraith says. "The horses are more fatigued, so have less
support to the joint."
The horse was used to running mostly on grass in Europe and had earned more than $1.4 million racing there for owners Susan
Magnier of Ireland and Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith of England.
The Monmouth Park track was a sea of mud during both race days.
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