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134TH KENTUCKY DERBYMay 3, 2008Larry BramlageCHURCHILL DOWNS, KENTUCKY Q. If you could, explain what happened with Eight Belles and at what point on the track and just give us what you know at this point. DR. LARRY BRAMLAGE: Well, he had finished the race and was around the turn at the start of the backstretch and right near one of the out riders as they were watching, he saw both front ankles just collapse, and the initial physical examination, of course, we don't have X-rays or anything, it's obvious from the physical examination that she had condylar fractures in the left side and the left-front opened the skin and went through the skin and was contaminated. The left side had a condylar fracture and at least one of the sesamoids broken. So she didn't have a front leg to stand on to be splinted and hauled off in the ambulance so, she was immediately euthanized. Catastrophic injury and something that we occasionally see in one -- it's not terribly unheard of for a horse to have some problem bilaterally, but normally, in my years in racing, I have never seen this happen at the end of the race or during the race. Q. With the severity of the injury, only one decision to be made? DR. LARRY BRAMLAGE: Absolutely, nothing you could do. This was tough enough had it been one, but it happened in both, and the odd thing is, it happened on the same stride. She just collapsed right in front of the outrider, so there was really not any warning. And she had gone all the way around the turn slowing down, galloping out. Q. Can you just go into this whole concept of how unusual it is? We have seen horses break down during a race but after a race where they are slowing down and relaxing, it just seems a bit odd for that to happen at that point. DR. LARRY BRAMLAGE: Well, it will happen sometimes after the race. You know, that's not terribly unheard of. Horses really tire. They are taking a lot of load on their skeleton because their muscles are fatigued. So we will occasionally see a catastrophic injury or a routine injury after the wire when the horse is slowing down. The difficult thing to explain with her, is it's so far after the wire, and she was easing down like you'd like to see a horse slow down by that point. And then all of a sudden it goes over the brink in both legs. I don't have an explanation for it because I have no background to draw on, because I haven't seen anything like this before. Q. Were you able to speak with Larry Jones at all, and did he not find out until he got back there? DR. LARRY BRAMLAGE: I don't know. I did not speak with him and I don't know anything about that. I was tied up on the radio with the veterinarians. Obviously I could not see this thing firsthand. I was listening to the radio with the veterinarians and the outriders on the scene when this happened. We were past the wire and everyone breathed a big sigh of relief and everyone came around the track cleanly and then all of a sudden it happened, so I don't know anything about that. Q. Is there any chance that this could have started as some little microfractures that developed during the race, like deep in the stretch, and they just continued to progress as she was pulling up? DR. LARRY BRAMLAGE: Well, the answer is, is there any chance there were microfractures; the answer is yes. Most fractures in horses start as small microfractures that progress; so I guess the answer to your question is yes, it could have happened. As you know, many, many injuries to horses don't show up until they are cooling out. They get little cracks during the race, and we don't know it until they go to the wash rack and walk off and they are lame in one leg or the other. So the scenario you propose is plausible; maybe even likely. But there's no information to know that it is. Q. Does this incident suggest it's perhaps at all dangerous for a filly to go against the boys in a Derby, a demanding race such as this? DR. LARRY BRAMLAGE: I would say, no. One injury is not an epidemic. As bad as it seems right now, it's one incident. Fillies race against colts on an intermittent basis and it's not like we see this as a routine; in fact, I've never seen it before. Q. Could the Polytrack have helped at all? DR. LARRY BRAMLAGE: I don't think you can blame the injury on the racetrack or say that the Polytrack would have prevented it. When we talk about the difference between racetracks, we are normally talking about long-term, accumulation of wear and tear, and so this is not like Eight Belles was deep in the middle of a stretch battle and hit a bad step. She was done with the race, we're all the way through the end, and I don't think the forces on her legs pulling up would be any different on dirt or artificial surface. If this was going to happen, I doubt whether it would have made any difference. The thing that we notice on tracks that have a high rate of catastrophic injuries, when you put Polytrack on, is a lack of these bad step catastrophic injuries, but she's not in the meat of a race; she's pulling up at the end. I doubt whether it would have been any different. She could have been on the grass or dirt or anywhere. End of FastScripts |
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