Heard an interesting tidbit of backstretch gossip if you will about Esky. Seems there are rumors floating around that he\'s got some physical issues not being made known to the general public. I have no way to verify this, of course, and I watched the Wood on TV like most of you all and obviously saw nothing wrong there, but the only reason I mention this is that his work tab seems rather light since the Wood - he\'s not working till the 18th and then once more before the Derby? Have I got that right? I always like to see a horse work from 7-10 days after a race, and I consider 15 days the absolute maximum before I start questioning any horse - he\'s working in 15. Just food for thought. Don\'t shoot the messenger, please, as I said this could all be nothing - this is one year I feel pretty solid about a potential Derby lock (as I have jumped off Lucky\'s onto Eskendereya\'s bandwagon), and, of course, I have to bump into this one dude the other day, strange. Hopefully they will show the workouts on TVG or something, and I can judge for myself what I see. Did he ever wear fronts before the Wood?
I posted about this a couple days ago, Dana. See my post here:
http://www.thorograph.com/phorum/read.php?1,57974,58225#msg-58225
Rumors always fly this time of year. I was at the rail for the Fountain of Youth and he was not shaven then. Correct that it usually done before a procedure but it may be related to prepping for the front bandages? Rumor and fact are two different things. For example, at the same FOY I spoke with a \"clocker\" that I worked with 20 years ago (NY stable). I asked him about Buddy the Saint and he said he had a bit of an ankle (larger than normal in size) and made some throaty noises during morning gallops.I passed the race and was not surprised to later hear he had a chip in his ankle (it may have been from the rough FOY trip). In any case since he observes for a living it was not a rumor but his observation. Any information that is not first hand is still subject to interpretation.
If Esky misses any time training or his works don\'t impress it will be front page racing news. That is the benefit of having intense media scrutiny this time of year. For example, Empire Maker was the best horse going in and best bred but missed time leading up to the derby with widely reported hoof issues and he ran like it flattening out in the drive as the 5/2 favorite. Funny Cide did have good enough pattern/number power to take advantage of this. But the foot problems didn\'t scare many away from backing him at the windows and I have learned to pass if all systems are not 100% leading up to the race. There will always be better opportunities ahead. Regarding how Eskendereya will handle the faster projected pace scenario see TAP\'s post-Wood comments below.
"He ran as well as he did in the Fountain of Youth,\" Pletcher said. \"The thing that Johnny did today was take pretty good care of him from the eighth pole to the wire. There was more there than what we saw, even as impressive as it was.
"He's not at the mercy of anyone's pace. He sets his own pace. We just wanted him in his rhythm. I said to (owner Ahmed) Zayat (last summer at Saratoga), this horse literally improves every week. A lot of times they improve to a certain point and then level off. He keeps doing it.\"
I can\'t speak to this exact instance, but lots of times, and in lots of stables, horses are clipped like that for a few reasons. One, it makes it much easier to dry the legs thoroughly after bathing- some horses have pretty long hair at the back of their ankles and pasterns, I\'m not talking Clydesdale but you get my point- and the drying helps prevent cracked heels, fungal infections, and the like. It\'s also easier to check for nicks that left untreated may become infected.
Also, in some stables the trainers want the legs clipped so any liniments or daily leg paints/poultices penetrate the skin better and do their work better, and in the case of poultice, it\'s a lot easier to wash off the next morning.
What\'s going on in this case I can\'t say.
BH Wrote:
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> I can\'t speak to this exact instance, but lots of
> times, and in lots of stables, horses are clipped
> like that for a few reasons. One, it makes it much
> easier to dry the legs thoroughly after bathing-
> some horses have pretty long hair at the back of
> their ankles and pasterns, I\'m not talking
> Clydesdale but you get my point- and the drying
> helps prevent cracked heels, fungal infections,
> and the like. It\'s also easier to check for nicks
> that left untreated may become infected.
> Also, in some stables the trainers want the legs
> clipped so any liniments or daily leg
> paints/poultices penetrate the skin better and do
> their work better, and in the case of poultice,
> it\'s a lot easier to wash off the next morning.
> What\'s going on in this case I can\'t say.
Should be pretty simple to see if Munnings and other horses of Pletcher\'s have their legs clipped. I don\'t believe we will find that they do.
Dana,
Haven\'t heard anything about ESK\'s condition. I do know that it is normal for Pletcher not to work his big name 3 year olds until about 2 weeks after a race. That\'s been his MO for quite some time, so I wouldn\'t read anything into that. Compare ESK\'s workout line to Connemara, Discreetly Mine, Interactif, Mission Impazible & Rule. They all have approximately the same spacing between works after racing.
Wow,interesting. Not sure what to do with all this information, but I can\'t ignore it.
OK, well, I hope they televise the workout in Florida. Would be good to see for ourselves. But still only two workouts from the Wood to the Derby? If that\'s his MO maybe that\'s why he hasn\'t won any derbies. To me that\'s something to take note of. Hey, I also know a great many unsound horses have won the Derby in recent years, not saying Esky is unsound, either.
Those of you old enough to remember will recall that during the weeks leading up to the 1973 Derby rumors were flying that Secretariat had a bad knee....yea right. It happens every spring