Pletcher Comebackers

[TGJB]

You\'re right, he doesn\'t point for any of those little CD stakes. Nobody pays any attention to what happens there anyway.

[miff]

Talking meets, now individual races.Check his number of starts in NY and Florida vs all other.Think that may show it.

[TGJB]

Seriously? When he runs horses in stakes at CD-- which on top of other things means shipping-- he\'s not \"pointing\" for them? And by the way, his horses do pretty good at Aqueduct (which is to say much better than at CD).

Keep in mind I know some stuff for a fact, Allday ran his mouth with no compunction to the Jockey Club. Not a matter of deduction or interpretation.

ROTW will be Sunland Derby, up tomorrow.

[miff]

Don\'t know your point but if it\'s that the testing in better/tougher in Kentucky than other main venues, you gave a scoop.

[TGJB]

Again-- they changed labs. Before that there is reason to believe they were not testing at all.

[miff]

Dr.Mary Scollay is rolling on the floor with laughter if she read that!

[Caradoc]

So then why do the Keeneland stats do not fit the theory? And don\'t we think that Pletcher also points for the little Keeneland stakes and Keeneland generally, where his stats accord with his overall stats?

[TGJB]

Trust me on this one. Information, not just belief.

[Fairmount1]

Here is an honest question for anyone.  Sighthound?  Can you explain whether \"elevated liver enzymes\" are normal issues for horses? I\'ve read they are but..... What about in Grade 1 quality horses?  And what about the likelihood of them both being in the same barn in the same year and having this happen (2011)?  And is cancer common after this elevated enzyme level?  And how come I\'ve never read about elevated liver enzymes in other trainers horses--is it because TAP is more forthcoming with information than other trainers?

Just seems to me that\'s just the most coincidentally, tragic set of events in one trainer\'s barn that could ever happen.  Unless of course, you go back to the case of Left Bank, Freedom\'s Daughter, and Warners.....

Thanks in advance for any responses.  
___________________________________________

Uncle Mo has been scratched from Saturday\'s running of the Kentucky Derby.

An intestinal problem was discovered after last year\'s Breeders\' Cup Juvenile champion finished third at the Wood Memorial on April 9. Trainer Todd Pletcher indicated recently that Uncle Mo had been recovering from the issue, but still said he and owner Mike Repole would wait until an examination from vets on Friday morning before making a decision on the colt\'s Derby status.

\"He\'s got one specific enzyme that\'s elevated that has everyone baffled, they can\'t identify why,\" said Pletcher at a Friday morning news conference. \"Generally, without getting too scientific, when this particular enzyme is elevated there is also something in the bloodwork that would lead them to the direction toward a liver or a kidney, but this specific case it\'s one single enzyme that\'s elevated that doesn\'t really lead you anywhere else.\"

\"The biggest thing I see is depressed appetite, loss of weight and his haircoat\'s not right,\" Pletcher added.
___________________________________

Multiple Grade 1 winner Devil May Care, a starter in the 2010 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands, was euthanized May 4 after a confirmed diagnosis of lymphosarcoma, a form of cancer.

Her dire condition was confirmed by veterinarian Johanna Reimer, a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology at Rood and Riddle in Lexington.

The 4-year-old mare by Malibu Moon out of the Red Ransom mare Kelli\'s Ransom earned $724,000 at 2 and 3. Her victories included the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes, BetFair TVG Coaching Club American Oaks (Grade 1), Frizette Stakes (Grade 1) and the Bonnie Miss Stakes (Grade 2). Devil May Care finished 10th in last year\'s Derby.
Purchased for $110,000 by John Greathouse at the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale, Devil May Care was trained by Todd Pletcher.

According to Greathouse\'s Glencrest Farm, which raced the filly in all nine of her starts, she will be cremated following a complete autopsy. Devil May Care was bred in Kentucky by Diamond A Racing Corporation.
Devil May Care had been a hopeful for last year\'s Breeders\' Cup Ladies\' Classic at Churchill Downs, but her diagnosis with a non-contagious form of hepatitis last October forced her to skip the race. Since then, she had been on and off antibiotics and continued to carry an elevated liver enzyme count.

Greathouse said the filly had been hospitalized in Florida over the winter, where her condition had been monitored by veterinarians. The filly, who had also been treated for an inflamed bowel, was brought back to Glencrest this spring when she showed some slight improvements.

\"When she got here, she looked good,\" said Greathouse, who added Devil May Care was on steroid medications he believed had kept the cancer at bay. Although she did put on some weight while in Kentucky the last few months, her coat began to deteriorate, and veterinarians at Rood and Riddle did more tests on the filly that ultimately detected the cancer.

\"We went through a lot to keep her alive, and we were willing to walk that road with her, but it was a battle she was never going to win,\" said an emotional Greathouse, who expressed his deep respect for the filly.

[TGJB]

I don\'t know the answer to why Kee but not CD. But I also didn\'t know why Sightseek (name?) and others ran tops for Frankel at one SoCal track and not another, to the point where he pretty much stopped running there.

[Caradoc]

Sightseek actually ran her tops at CD (ironically enough) and at the NY tracks then went backward when Frankel shipped her to run in California so I don\'t see any relevance of her to this.  Anyway, the point is that any suggestion that any supposed decline in the performance of Pletcher horses in Kentucky cannot be related to any change in labs required by the KHRC.

[SoCalMan2]

TGJB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don\'t know the answer to why Kee but not CD. But
> I also didn\'t know why Sightseek (name?) and
> others ran tops for Frankel at one SoCal track and
> not another, to the point where he pretty much
> stopped running there.

Well, the synthetics are like turf in certain respects.  I, often, look at turf figures (and synthetic figures) a little differently than dirt because of the nature of the way races can be run.  In turf, it seems a lot of times the horses jog and jockey for position the first three quarters and then only race the very end.....in dirt, it seems the race is broken open before it is halfway over.  Not sure I am making sense here, but I can imagine drugs having different impacts depending on the nature of the physical effort required.  

For example, when I was rowing in college, our coach had us do all this weird testing for our anabolic (sp?) threshold.  Basically, your body reacts very differently depending on which side of this threshold you are operating on (as i understand it, it has to do with how much oxygen your muscles are using under the particular conditions versus how much oxygen can your body deliver to the muscles).  My point is.....there was a time at Keeneland where nobody put out any effort for the first chunk of the race....everybody crawled.  That is quite different than how races were run at Churchill in the adjacent meets.  Perhaps the anabolic threshold (if that is even an equine issue) was different in the two, and the drugs only really help those running over the threshold not below.  Apologies if this comes out like chinese or greek.  Maybe somebody more knowledgeable can make sense of what I am trying to say and translate.

[SoCalMan2]

Caradoc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sightseek actually ran her tops at CD (ironically
> enough) and at the NY tracks then went backward
> when Frankel shipped her to run in California so I
> don\'t see any relevance of her to this.  Anyway,
> the point is that any suggestion that any supposed
> decline in the performance of Pletcher horses in
> Kentucky cannot be related to any change in labs
> required by the KHRC.


Was sightseek\'s issue that she did fine on dirt but poorly on synthetic?  My other post here could explain that if I am right (or at least in the right direction).

[Caradoc]

No.  She never ran on synthetic.

[Eight Belles]

Fairmount, the rare liver ailments of these two horses - killing one of them - is indeed suspicious.  As was Life At Ten, who somehow didn\'t get drug tested.  As was the episode a number of years back when Left Bank, Freedom\'s Daughter, and another horse all got deathly ill (and it ultimately killed all of them) up at Saratoga.