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I read a short while ago in RP that the stats for horses to win after being kicked at the start is extremely low. I had backed Wendigo in the Mildmay and was hoping the vets would pull him out as I thought that’s done his chances.
The more I know the less I understand.
I have no idea how much a vet can tell you about a possible injury when the horse does a bit of trotting in front of him. So why bother with that procedure at all?
A trained eye can definitely tell if the horse has a problem … as can a knowledgeable rider on top …
Even trotting a horse to see if he is sound is not really a good enough check to be doing down at the start – the difference to how a horses uses himself between trotting and galloping is huge and you are much more likely to see an issue when doing the latter rather than the former.
Personally I’m not really sure this was the cause of the bad run – the horse is an out and out galloper and given the nature of the track and the more decent ground (4 of his 6 wins have been on soft or heavy ground) I felt he was always going to struggle today (a lot of his recent race descriptions mention the word ‘outpaced’ in them) and I am not sure if he is a G1 horse in the first place.
Think a race like the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury (especially on soft ground) would be more up his alley and eventually he could be a Welsh, Irish National, Bet365 or National type horse.
All part of betting on animals, they can’t tell you how they’re feeling. You pays your money and you takes your chance.
Even humans will race whilst ill and not tell you about it until afterwards.
Saw one when down near the 3m at Ayr earlier in the season, I heard a loud ‘thwack’ of the kick from another horse. It was trotted up and looked OK but jockey said he wouldn’t take a chance and it was withdrawn.
I think it very much depends on what part of the body a horse gets kicked in as to how much it can affect them but once the adrenaline of racing kicks in it can disguise a potential issue until it wears off.
Henbit won the 1980 Derby and afterwards it was discovered that he had a hairline fracture in his canon bone…….horse are remarkable creatures and as we have seen can run through pain barriers to the extent where they have sadly collapsed and died soon after a race.
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