Archive for the ‘Horse Health’ Category

Below is a letter from Christopher McErlean, VP of Racing at Penn National Gaming, requesting an investigation into the recent Michael Gill controversy. Citing their concern for the well-being of the jockeys and horses, we believe Penn National should be commended for their stance on this matter.

Click here for a PDF of the letter

Then let us know what you think

- Bradford Cummings

Maggi Moss knows the claiming game and has shown a strong competitive desire to succeed in the Thoroughbred business. Those are two traits she shares with Michael Gill. Moss won 211 races in 2006, more than any other owner that year, the first woman to do so in more than half a century. She’s won no Eclipse Awards (Gill was voted an Eclipse Award as outstanding owner in 2005), but the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders’ Association named her National Owner of the Year at the organization’s annual awards dinner in 2007.

After reading about the controversy involving Gill’s fatally injured horses at Penn National, Moss submitted to the Paulick Report the following open letter to the controversial owner, pointedly telling him: “Please get out of racing.” – Ray Paulick

By Maggi Moss

An open Letter to Michael Gill
 
Horse racing is already suffering in every regard. Among the public and handicappers, perception is at an all-time low. Owners are increasingly looking to get out.

I have followed Michael Gill horses for almost two years now. I follow patterns and read charts and I have also read Mr. Gill’s comments. He sought out to break a record in 2009 and did not achieve it. Horses were the means to that goal. In that process, how many horses died?

I know about trying to reach goals, break records, and stay on top of the National Standings. I realized after obtaining my own personal goal in 2006, that I too was guilty of using horses to achieve my own personal accomplishments. I, however, did not lose one horse that year.

I opted to change my program and immediately knew that I had to give back to a sport that I am passionate about. It was my job to keep track of my horses and protect them in every way I could. In thoughts of getting out, I realized that I could save more horses in racing then merely turning my back on the sport. Most of all, even if I chose to compete at a lesser level, I could still treat my horses like they are all worth a million dollars, by picking the right individuals, giving them time off, and protecting them in every way I could. Most of all, I could try and give back in every way I was able to financially.

Mr. Gill states that “he takes care of his horses and sends them to retirement homes.” I think it’s important for him to tell us: What homes? I also think he owes it to this sport to tell us what monies he has contributed to the welfare of his horses or what charities has he ever contributed to for the retirement of racehorses.

One only needs to watch his horses run at Penn National and see that his horses do not react as other horses that are injured. When horses hurt themselves, the jockey comes off, and the horse stops–in most cases. Mr. Gill’s horses continue to run around the track even with broken legs, as if they feel no pain. It is gruesome, grotesque and unnatural and would lead one to wonder if these horses are blocked. Has Penn National performed full autopsies and blood tests to find this out ?  Way too many horses owned by Mr. Gill have died a painful death, and it’s not due to mere numbers.

Horses getting hurt is the worst part of the business, incredibly sad. It’s enough to make many get out and, worse, the public to look upon us as barbaric. The industry continues to study the problem, the outcries keep us in the hunt to find the answers. One can blame the veterinarians, the trainers, the owners, or the surfaces, but it is the one sad and tragic part of the business. Mr. Gill’s rates of horses vanned off, hurt, and worse—“breakdowns”–is not due to his numbers but due to the fact that he wants horses he can run through their conditions at all costs. It’s not about claiming horses, it’s about what one does with the horse afterwards.

I have had horses break down, and I have claimed horses that have broken down and it is the most heart-wrenching, sickening feeling I have ever experienced. It only can drive you to protect your own horses and try to save others. The responsibility for these horses lies squarely with the owners.

The difference Mr. Gill, is that your history and your cavalier attitude about losing a horse is what makes you public enemy Number One. You are always more concerned about “being picked on” or suing someone rather than doing something about it. You do not show compassion for your animals, nor do you contribute back to this industry; it’s all about you.
 
You want to stop being picked on? Then do something about it. Hire an outside vet to come to your farm and go through all your horses and tell you which ones are racing sound and healthy. Quit running some horses three and sometimes four times a month.

Quit trying to break records and take care of the horses you have. Publicly tell us where all your horses go when you are through with them or no longer have their conditions. Donate some of your winnings to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation or other worthy cause. Do something for the industry and save some horses in lieu of destroying them. Stop the perception that horses are a piece of property for you for your personal gain.

If you can’t do any of this, please just get out: you continue to hurt the industry, not help it.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
“I’ve been doing this since 1979, and I just can’t get a fair shake.” So says Michael Gill, North America’s leading owner by money and races won on four different occasions who finds himself in a familiar position–at the center of controversy, after Penn National jockeys voted Saturday night not to ride in races if Gill’s horses are entered.

The jockeys took the initiative following the fifth race at Penn National, when a Gill-trained horse, Laughing Moon, blew a suspensory and fell after the finish, causing another horse to go down. Gill had a runner entered in the sixth race, but that horse was scratched. Gill-owned horses entered later this week also have been scratched, and Penn National officials said Monday they temporarily have banned his horses from the entry box, according to bloodhorse.com. Jockeys complained that an unusually high number of horses owned by Gill have either broken down or suffered injuries in Penn National races in the last few months, putting riders at risk. One of Gill’s horses broke down on Thursday night, and Laughing Moon became the 15th runner since October to break down, pull up during the race, be eased, or return lame following the finish.

Penn National officials said seven of Gill’s horses broke down in 2009, a figure that Gill disputes. But even if that number is correct, he said, he believes his percentage of breakdowns is in line or lower than that of other stables that compete at the Pennsylvania track.

I was unable to reach Gill over the weekend prior to publication of Monday’s Paulick Report article on the Penn National incident, but I contacted him Monday at his Mortgage Specialists office in New Hampshire. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy with the actions of the jockeys or with the unwelcome publicity, and in a 30-minute, emotional interview touched on a wide range of subjects. Among the revelations from the 54-year-old Gill were:

- He has fired Darrel Delahoussaye, the trainer of Laughing Moon. “They (Penn National) put a gun to my head, and someone had to take the bullet,” he said. “I feel bad about this. But if I lose the (49) stalls at Penn National, I’m out of business.”

- Some time last year, Gill hired former Oaklawn Park and Louisiana Downs leading trainer Cole Norman. Norman was released from prison in January 2009 after serving time for negligent homicide, for his role in a fatal car crash in which he was under the influence of prescription pain killers. Norman works at Gill’s Elk Creek Ranch in Oxford, Pa., which is used as a training center for horses that race at Penn National, Philadelphia Park, Laurel, Mountaineer Park and Charles Town. “He’s a good trainer,” said Gill.

- Though he said he has lost tens of millions of dollars over the years, Gill claims he didn’t “put one penny of my money into the business last year. I can go to the IRS and say this is a business, it isn’t a hobby.” Gill said he is in a five-year audit with the Internal Revenue Service over whether or not his racing stable is a legitimate business.

- Apart from the horses that broke down at Penn National in 2009, Gill claims he had only one other horse break down in a race. “I ran 2,247 horses last year,” he said. “If a guy had 100 starts and one horse breaks down, is that unacceptable? We’re running in the middle of winter on muddy tracks.

- Gill denies “running sore horses,” and said he didn’t have a single bad test in 2009. “And was anything found in any of my horses after they broke down? Nothing.” I asked Gill about widespread rumors that shock-wave therapy is used at Elk Creek Ranch on horses close to a race. “I never use shock-wave therapy. Never have had a machine. Never, ever used it once, and believe me, plenty of guys have tried to sell me the machines. I don’t believe in them.” He also said he would “open the farm to anyone to inspect it. They can go over every horse I have.”

- He attributes much of the stable’s success to the fact he gives all of his horses medication for Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis, or EPM, a neurological disease. “A good 80% of horses have EPM,” he said. He also has throat surgeries, or myectomies, performed on many of the horses he claims because “with EPM, one side of the flap (in the epiglottis) is gone, and the other half doubles in size. Then it closes up. The surgery helps them breathe.”

- His stable, at one time consisting of 450 horses in 2009, was reduced to 220 and he is in the process of reducing it to 120. “I’m still downsizing,” he said. Furthermore, Gill claims that “all of the horses go to retirement programs.” He wasn’t specific as to where they go. “I give good homes to them,” he said. “I’ve given away 20 horses in the last 30 days for $1.”

- Gill didn’t say he planned to take legal action against Penn National, the jockey colony or the Jockeys’ Guild, but said “Do you know when people organize against one person, that’s a significant lawsuit. Does anybody understand that? I’m tired of suing racetracks—and winning, by the way, every effing time.” He said the jockeys took the action–reported to be a unanimous vote—because “it’s a very closed community at Penn National; a lot of good old boys. I went in there and won all these races, and I’m winning with only two jockeys.”

- Though he lives and works far away in New Hampshire, Gill said he keeps tabs on the stable both at the training farm and the track. “There’s not a race that goes off that I don’t see,” he said. “I have cameras in the barn that go right to my office. I turn around and see every race. I do what I can to be able to run both businesses.”

Why, I asked Gill, is he still in the business, if he thinks he is so mistreated and so misunderstood? “I love the competition. I love the animal. I am a competitor. I am that $5,000 broke down racehorse. I’m a raw competitor with bad knees and sore neck. What better place to compete than in horse racing, and I don’t even gamble on these horses.”

Gill continues to be denied stalls at many tracks, and doesn’t understand why he isn’t appreciated for his involvement in the game and for “showing the industry that you can make money doing this. Of course, if people find out they don’t have to buy a $1-million yearling to make money, do you think they’ll spend money at those sales?”

I suggested to him that people spending that kind of money are looking to win big races during the Triple Crown or at the Breeders’ Cup, not $5,000 claiming races in the dead of winter. “That’s the lottery mentality,” he said.

He turned the tables and asked me a question: “Why don’t you like me?” I said I thought he was arrogant and used his horses as a means to an end.  “You’re mistaking arrogance with competitiveness,” he said. It was clearly an argument I wasn’t going to win.

“Look,” he said. “I came from a seminary, had no money, didn’t go to college. I worked harder than everybody else to get what I have. I started my mortgage company in a one-bedroom apartment, and my living room was my office. I loved horse racing and turned around and invested my money. I go to work every day and haven’t had a vacation for as long as I remember.

“I just don’t understand: What have I done that’s so wrong?”

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
If only Michael Gill had kept his word in 2006 when he said he was getting out of horse racing after being leading owner in North America by money and races won for three consecutive years. A lot of people would be happier and a number of horses might still be alive.

Gill did get out of racing in 2006, the year after he was inexplicably voted an Eclipse Award as outstanding owner. Unfortunately, he got back in the game late in 2008, and he was back on top again as leading owner by both races and money won in 2009.

But wait, doesn’t horse racing need more owners, not fewer of them? Not if they’re like Mike Gill. Not in my book, at least. Gill claims relentlessly and runs an absurd number of horses: he had 2,235 starts in 2003, 2,885 in 2004, 1,870 in 2005, and 2,247 in 2009. His best year earnings-wise was $10,811,631, an average of $3,748 per start. Many people feel he is using the animals as nothing more than a commodity to get what he wants. His critics, and there are many, say the horses too often pay the ultimate price.

Nothing outstanding about that. For the life of me, I don’t see how anyone ever could have voted to give him an Eclipse Award.

Jockeys at Penn National Race Course apparently took a vote of a different type on Saturday night, allegedly telling track management they would refuse to ride in any more races in which Mike Gill-owned horses were entered. The vote was taken following the fifth race, after third-place finisher Laughing Moon broke down past the wire, causing another horse to also go down. Laughing Moon’s jockey Rickey Frazier escaped injury.

It was the second breakdown of a Gill-owned horse at Penn National in three nights, Melodeeman having suffered a similar catastrophic injury on Thursday night. Melodeeman was trained by Anthony Adamo and Laughing Moon by Darrel Delahoussaye—Gill’s two trainers at Penn National.

There was a lengthy delay between Saturday night’s fifth and sixth races as the jockeys stated their case. Eventually, a Gill horse, Justin M, was scratched from the sixth race, and the remainder of the card was completed without incident. Gill had no other horses entered following the sixth.

“Gill’s horses are breaking down at a race that’s just not normal,” said a Penn National horseman who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “and it’s not the racetrack. The track is safe. The riders did a very honorable thing, finally saying ‘enough is enough,’ and did so at the risk of a backlash from management. The guys said we are not putting our lives in danger, or the horses in danger.”

According to Equibase charts, in just over three months, 14 other horses owned by Gill have either broken down, were pulled up, returned lame, or eased at Penn National. There were nine in October, three in November, one in December and two in January. (The count includes Saturday night’s incident involving Laughing Moon, even though the Equibase chartcaller did not report the horse broke down past the wire.) Most of the horses are running in bottom level claiming races. At Penn National, however, thanks to slot machine revenue, $5,000 claimers can run for as much as $20,000, with $12,000 going to the winner. An owner can make money squeezing a win out of a horse he claimed for $5,000, even if that horse never runs another race.

Chris McErlean, vice president of racing for Penn National Gaming, said he was not at the track on Saturday but got a report on the incident. McErlean said it is his understanding that horses entered by Gill to race later in the week already have been scratched voluntarily by their trainers. “That wasn’t necessarily at our direction,” McErlean said. “No formal actions have been taken.”

McErlean also said the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission is investigating. “They could be looking into Mr. Gill’s horses in particular, but breakdowns in general,” he said. “They also could be looking at certain veterinarians.”

At the beginning of 2010, Penn National has started reviewing all breakdowns, McErlean said, conducting meetings that involve “the trainer and any other interested parties, the track, the racing commission, and our vet. Every horse that breaks down gets a necropsy done, starting at the beginning of this year. This was initiated by Penn National with the cooperation of the racing commission. Every horse that does break down or is involved in a death does get a necropsy done. We are doing this more for information gathering, to see if there is any connecting of the dots. People are concerned about this and we want some answers.”

Many of Gill’s starters are not stabled at Penn National but ship in from his Elk Creek Ranch in Oxford, Pa. While those horses are on private property, neither the racing commission nor Penn National has access to them. When any horses ship in to race and go to the receiving barn, a state or association veterinarian conducts a pre-race inspection. Horses stabled at the track (and Gill is believed to have 40-50 stalls at Penn National) are not routinely given pre-race exams.

Controversy has followed Gill everywhere he’s gone in racing. He’s been denied stalls at some tracks, banned from the entry box at another, and has not been shy about filing lawsuits.

When he failed to win an Eclipse Award in 2003, Gill put out a statement comparing himself to Seabiscuit’s owner, Charles Howard, in an underdog role against the establishment.

“I can’t help but think that the vote was a vote against me, rather than a vote against the accomplishments,” Gill wrote. “And I don’t understand that. We all cheered ‘Seabiscuit’ last year, a movie about hope and the underdog rising from obscurity to challenge racing’s establishment and emerge victorious.”

Unfortunately, for Laughing Moon and numerous other horses that took their last breath while racing for Gill, there is no hope. The best hope is that he leaves the sport again—this time for good.

Efforts to reach Gill were unsuccessful.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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Much has been written and said about the incident at the starting gate before the Breeders’ Cup Classic involving Quality Road, who was eventually scratched from the race after he refused to load. Alex Brown, an exercise rider for trainer Steve Asmussen, publisher of the Alex Brown Racing website, and a leader of the anti-slaughter movement, offers his opinion on the subject. – Ray Paulick

By Alex Brown
For animal rights activists this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic was not about the grace and brilliance of Zenyatta. It was about the “animal abuse” targeted at Quality Road by the gate crew, and the platform that abuse provides to support an anti-racing agenda.

I have read Internet articles, and have been forwarded e-mails targeted to news reporters, that include rhetoric that is deliberately inflammatory and without substance. Some of this discussion is posted here.

The rhetoric includes the idea that the gate crew is vindictive. What?  That the gate crew favored hometown Zenyatta at a cost to others.  Does this really deserve a response? I have read speculation that Quality Road was struck with a buggy whip after he was blindfolded. I would think that those who appear so excited about this opportunity to highlight our sport in such poor graces would at least confirm whether or not Quality Road was indeed struck with a buggy whip after being blindfolded. And finally I read in an e-mail about the number of horses that have died at the hands of gate crews. Really, how many?

The reality is that much of this rumor and speculation comes from people who know little about our horses and horse racing.  And their target audiences, who are similarly less knowledgable about our sport, are easily convinced.  If two people say it on the Internet, it must be true.

I have worked with many gate crews in North America, from Houston in Texas to Toronto in Ontario. Working for trainer Steve Asmussen, we bring each horse to the gate for schooling each week.  I see the gate crew work a lot.  The gate crew’s job is tough and not without risks. I have not always agreed with the decisions they have made with horses I am riding that are reluctant to load.  But their decisions are always made with their best intentions. Those working on gate crews do, for the most part, have a “machismo” type of attitude.  But they are putting themselves in risky situations on a frequent basis.

So I am a little aggrieved that the only thing animal rights people want us to remember about Zenyatta’s terrific performance is the near tragic circumstances that conspired before the race.  And these same animal rights people are on my team.  We are all arguing for the end of horse slaughter.  We believe it is inhumane and unnecessary. But if you are a horseman who should you believe? The pro-slaughter argument that horse slaughter is humane and is necessary or the anti-slaughter argument that it is inhumane and unnecessary. This latter argument is delivered by the same people who are willing to use speculation and inflamed rhetoric to damage our sport.

And for anyone interested in the reality of the Quality Road situation, here it is. Ugly, yes.  But let’s stop the speculation and inflamed rhetoric and if there is something to learn from this situation then let’s learn.  And let’s hope we see Quality Road back at the races to show us how brilliant he too can be.

Finally, thanks are due to the guy on the gate crew who managed to catch hold of Quality Road as he came out of the gate, blindfolded.  Without his quick thinking I shudder to think what might have happened.

By Ray Paulick
I had always been intimidated by trainer Bobby Frankel until I had the opportunity to spend some time with him in Tokyo in 2001 when he sent Amerman Racing Stable’s Lido Palace there for the second running of the Japan Cup Dirt.
 
With just that one horse to care for in Japan, he was more a tourist than a horseman that week. Unmarried at the time, he brought a former assistant trainer, Fred Cogan, as his guest (the Japan Racing Association allows each trainer to bring a spouse or guest at the JRA’s expense), and the three of us wound up palling around for much of the week, talking more about life than horses.

The lobby of the Keio Plaza Hotel was our gathering place, where it seemed there always was a wedding going on or one about to happen. Frankel was fascinated by the fact so many Japanese couples had Western-style weddings, and on the drive to the track one morning he opened a discussion about religion, wondering how a Buddhist society yielded so many weddings that looked like Christian ceremonies in America.

“What religion are you?” I asked, knowing that he was born Jewish.

“I’m one of those…what do you call them…they don’t really believe in anything.”

“Atheist?” Cogan asked.

“No, no,” he said. “I’m just not really sure….you know…aga…aga-something.”
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“Agnostic?” I said.

“Yeah, that’s it,” he said. “Aga-nostic. I really don’t know what to believe. How can anyone really know, you know what I mean?”

The discussion continued about religion and prayer, and Frankel volunteered that there was only one time in his career that he asked God for some help in winning a horse race, when Keeper Hill ran in the 1999 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. The filly was owned by John and Alice Chandler of Mill Ridge Farm and trainer Shug McGaughey. “I made a deal with God,” he said, “that if Keeper Hill won that race I would donate all of my winnings to charity. He kept his end of the bargain and so did I.”

I didn’t ask Frankel why he chose that particular horse and race to pray to a God he wasn’t sure existed, but I had my suspicions. Shortly after Keeper Hill had won, there were rumors that the filly was given a milkshake before the race (a loading of bicarbonates), something that might not have gone over very well with Alice Chandler, who had been leading the fight to tighten Kentucky’s then-lax medication rules.

“Keeper Hill…wasn’t there some story about her getting a milkshake before the Spinster?” I asked Frankel. He didn’t say yes or no, but his answer told me all I needed to know. “It wasn’t illegal,” he said, stretching that last word out in a way that only a native New Yorker could.

He was right. Milkshakes weren’t prohibited by the Kentucky Racing Commission until 2001 (they were banned in every other state, except Louisiana), and there were many people, including a number of veterinarians, who felt they were good for horses, since it was a natural substance that prevented lactic acid buildup and kept a horse from tiring, which is when many injuries occur. Frankel, if he did have a milkshake administered to Keeper Hill, didn’t break any rules.

Frankel admitted during the course of another conversation that he would use every legal edge available to win a race, as long as it didn’t do any harm to the horse. While in Japan that year, he checked with JRA officials to see what type of racing plates could be used for Lido Palace. “If I lost by that much,” he said, holding his thumb and index finger an inch apart, “and didn’t take advantage of whatever was legal, I wouldn’t be able to sleep.”

Lido Palace ran a clunker in Japan, finishing far behind Kurofune in a mystifying performance. I don’t think Frankel slept very well that night, and it wasn’t because of jet lag. Over breakfast the next morning, he said he thinks he messed up when he tightened the girth on Lido Palace, cinching it so tight the horse might have had trouble breathing properly.

Frankel was as competitive as anyone in the sport, celebrating the wins in style but also suffering through the losses. He was always looking for an edge, but drew the line if the result could be harmful to his horses. During his record-setting year in 2003 when he won 25 Grade 1 races and set a new earnings mark for trainers, rumors ran rampant that he was “juicing” his horses with a blood-doping agent called Epogen.

I called him, told him about the rumors I’d been hearing, and asked if it was true. “How stupid do you think I am?” he said. “I’ve got the best training job in this business with Juddmonte. You think I would do something to risk that?

“That shit kills horses,” he said. “I don’t use any of that stuff–anabolic steroids–anything that’s harmful to a horse.”

The loss of Frankel leaves a big void in our sport. He was as colorful as anyone I’ve ever known. His record of accomplishment speaks for itself and brought him fame around the world, gaining him entry into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame.

But his love for the horses he trained will punch Frankel’s ticket to heaven—if there is such a place. After all, who really knows?

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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Dunkirk, the second-place finisher in the June 6 Belmont Stakes, suffered a non-displaced condylar fracture of the left hind cannon bone during last Saturday’s running of the 1 ½ - mile Classic. The injury was detected when the colt was slightly off following the race, and x-rays taken June 8 revealed the fracture.

“He will have surgery later this morning to place a screw into the area which will stabilize the injury while it heals,” said Todd Pletcher, trainer of Dunkirk.  “We anticipate a full recovery and a return to racing later this fall.”

The surgery will be performed at the Ruffian Equine Medical Center in Elmont, NY by Dr. Patricia Hogan.

Dunkirk, owned by Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith, was a $3.7 million Keeneland September yearling sale purchase. Sired by multiple graded stakes winner Unbridled’s Song, he led the field in this year’s Belmont, setting the pace under jockey John Velazquez.  He finished 2 ¾ lengths behind eventual winner Summer Bird and a neck ahead of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.

The Belmont was the fifth start for Dunkirk, who ran an impressive second to Quality Road in the Florida Derby after scoring back to back wins at Gulfstream Park.

By Ray Paulick
I Want Revenge, the Kentucky Derby morning line favorite, was scratched because of some lameness detected in his left front ankle that showed up on the morning of the race, trainer Jeff Mullins said during a press conference at 9:15 a.m. Saturday.

Mullins said a "touch of heat" was detected in the ankle after I Want Revenge’s bandages were removed early this morning, and the Stephen Got Even colt was then jogged up and down an asphalt roadway for soundness. "Actually he jogged pretty well," Mullins said. A flexion test of the same ankle showed some lameness. 

"Knowing the weather and how well they sealed the racetrack and the possibility of how hard the racetrack may be today if the rain keeps coming," Mullins said, the decision was made to scratch the horse.

Veterinarian Foster Northrup, a member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, also had the horse jogged and did a flexion test on the ankle that showed some lameness when the horse jogged again.  Northrup said the lameness fell at one on a scale of one to five that veterinarians use, adding that "is not acceptable for any race."

Northrup commended Mullins and breeder and co-owner David Lanzman "for doing the right thing by the horse. They made the right call for the horse."

X-rays and ultrasound failed to show any specific problem, so neither Northrup nor Dr. Larry Bramlage, an equine surgeon, had a diagnosis of a specific injury. More tests will be conducted on the horse to determine the specific nature of the injury and when I Want Revenge could return to training.

The withdrawal of the morning line favorite was the most significant scratch on the day of the Derby since A.P. Indy was forced out due to foot lameness in 1992. The son of Seattle Slew returned a few weeks later to win the Peter Pan Stakes and the Belmont Stakes en route to 3-year-old champion and Horse of the Year honors. I Want Revenge’s sire, Stephen Got Even, is a son of A.P. Indy.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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