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Kicking King ruled out for the season with a reoccurance of the injury that kept him out of action last season. His trainer has admitted it may be his last race as they wouldn’t want to cause unnecessary pain for the horse. Do you think we have seen the last of Kicking King or may he back for the Gold Cup 2008? A shame he is missing this season’s Gold Cup as it was shaping up to be the best for some time with War Of Attrition, Kauto Star and many younger horses also holding Gold CUp pretentions.
It’s unlikely that we will ever see KK on a racecourse again and capable of running to the same standard that he set himself back in 2004/2005.
It’s things like these that make you go "I thought betting on horses was frustrating". I don’t think my temperament could ever stand up to being an owner.
I have been involved with 6 horses and three trainers in the last 10 years.All 6 horses have broken down with tendon problems. One othe horse was run mostly on the flat and is still racing. The gamble with NH horses brings also the grief of saying goodbye to them.Is it the highclass blood or what ? I don’t know. I had other NH horses with strictly hunting blood and they raced for 12 years. I believe we need the old farm mares to cross with the blood horses to get proper NH horses. Going to Coolmore for NH studs I believe is the wrong approach. The thoroughbred’s tendons do not stand up to jumping.
Could be something in that Andy. Certainly be interesting if the longevity of certain stallions offspring over obstacles could be measured somehow.
We could be stuck between the devil and deep blue sea because the horses bred to be ‘tough’ are perhaps not going to be fast enough to compete with the speedier but more prone to injury types.
There is a bit of a paradox going on here.
Modern veterinary research says that the tendon only grows until the end of a horses 2nd year and therefore foals and yearlings should be given appropriate work to maximise tendon growth ( traditional with flat race types)
The traditional NH type is gelded and turned away as a foal until 3y0 before any formal work is done and according to the vets is therefore more prone to tandon injuries in later life. One of the reasons for the new 3y0 12f bumpers is to get these horses in work earlier
The paradox is that despite the vets theories there appears to be many many more tendon injuries today than there used to be and we could make quite a list of top horses out with leg problems.
I believe the answer lies with modern training methods in a much more competitive age. Instead of the 6 – 8 weeks of preliminary roadwork that horses used to enjoy they do far of extended cantering on the gallops and in general are much harder worked than hitherto with trainers feeling they have to pack the work in to compete.
Whether that is strictly necessary is not supported scientifically ( although most trainers believe it and they are no fools) since treadmill work has shown that once a horse has been got to peak fitness extra work does not improve him and nor does he lose that conditioning particularly rapidly.
Even with stem cell methods of treating tendons bringing them back only has a 50% success rate and if they breakdown again either with a tendon or the suspensory injuries which seem to follow the success rate of coming back is very very low indeed.<br>
The great benefit of roadwork is that it actually causes the bones to grow more cells, particularly in younger horses.
There are also too many light-boned stallions being marketed as NH sires, especially in Ireland, and covering gigantic books of mares. What on earth is a brittle horse like Milan doing with 3 figure books?
A lot of these Sadler’s Wells stallions are not particularly robustly built, but after the exploits of the admirable Istabraq, they’re all the rage.
<br>We could talk about the lack of durability that there seemingly is these days but for me the reason we are not going to see KK again is because Sandown did not produce safe ground for the King George last season.
People on here scoffed when Hen Knight withdrew Racing Demon from the novice chase that day but at least she’s still got a racehorse. Feathard Lady hasn’t been seen since either and that’s no coincidence IMO…
In my experience the horses do not come back properly from an injury…they are never the same again.
regards
sandpiper
I would be surprised if we saw KK on a racecourse again, i’m afraid. Quite sad really, as I was looking forward to him taking on Kauto.
I would say no, and if they ever did get him race fit again, he would never be back to the prime horse he was, he would not be able to extend fully on that leg, i personally would retire him now.<br>Andy, I would look into your trainers training methods….good roadwork is good for the strengthing of the tendons, I do at least 4 months before even seeing the gallops, and I only work my horses twice a week, and they still do lots of roadwork….I have never had a horse breakdown on me…<br>They use those stallions, has NH ones cause they realise they are worth nothing on the flat…..but no one is breeding good old fashioned NH types anymore…I got youngsters that look like they should be in training for a Derby, not a local point to point…
Dear Racinggirluk<br>What I am going to say may not make sense since I am so frustrated.I only have one or at most two horses in training at a time I was the shallest of small owners. So you can imagine the respect I got from trainers who suppose you are rich because you love NH racing and scrape and scramble to make your monthly payments.<br>One trainer so overtrained my horse for his first race(a bumper) that he won and broke down the next day.The same trainer told me to take my horse to the knackers right in front of my friends.His clients are millionaires to whom he spent the time talking on his mobile phone while my horse was racing.(I started off with him when he needed horses) I really believe most trainers go to work to make a living and want a golden goose to provide them with an endless stream of horses.They go silent or spin you if you enquire about their training methods. You are not paying them enough to be worthy of that kind of attention. When mine was the only entry at a meeting the trainer never turned up. Had to get a load of hay he said.Another time the horse never turned up. Box broke down…Another time I travelled 100 miles in mid winter to see my horse running at the trainer’s local track.No passport no horse running. Had to turn around and drive home again.Again while drinking in the bar with me (the owner) the trainer got a phone call that the horse had just gotten a stone bruise while waiting to be saddled by the "las" Turn around and drive 200 miles home from an evening meeting without even an apology These are all true tales of the turf. I know of what I speak.These incidents were spread between different trainers and my solitary horses at each yard. Another time when I expressed regret at hearing that my horse had broken down I was casually told to get another horse. Also I was told that my horse was small but and I quote "I suppose if he had been any bigger you could not have afforded him" I gave another trainer a fit horse and he ran him 15 times in his first year with him, all his other horses had the bug. After the 15th race he told me the bad news horse broke down. Never did get a second season out of that poor devil!<br>Finally I am out of discretionary funds; spent what remained on a Lexus.<br>Anyone else had such experiences with horse ownership?<br>
I also doubt we’ll see Kicking King race again after such sustained injury – a terrible shame. At least I saw him in the flesh one last time when winning the King George at Sandown a year ago.
Racinggirluk – I note your point on the breeding of NH horses. In the long run it’s going to be severely detrimental to NH racing if NH horses are bred from such fragile Flat stock and not much else. And too many times I see ex-sprinters running in hurdle races, pulling hard and running out of puff with a circuit to go. What is the point? It’s a recipe for disaster. :(
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