Some Preliminaries

I've had some trouble with this next post for in the typing, my mind keeps straying to my personal disgust over racing's approach both to catastrophic injury and injury in general. The blog is about to get to the central stuff and what I consider one of the three or four biggest problems in racing which is that our trainers with their methods are both injuring their horses and in process driving owner after owner out of the game.

I've been now 25 years in the sport. I continue my personal amazement that the powers that be in racing seem unable to concentrate on or comprehend the central problem of injury and its effects. Even now with Eight Belles it's more whips, genetics and horse shoes than any recognition of the real causes. If you fail to understand or disagree, perhaps take a look at the Research Archive of the Grayson Jockey Club where you'll find exactly zero studies of the type of inquiry going on right now on this blog. Why would we be surprised at the George Washingtons and Eight Belles when the primary research arm of the sport fails us to this degree? It's a scandal.

But, just as I was giving up finding any horse related research as to the state of cannon bones during breezing I remembered the gentleman pictured above, Dr. Antonio Cruz, and that some good work indeed is going on right now at the Veterinary College, University of Ontario.

The Ontario project seems to have started in 2004. Here is a description:

"Identification and prediction of canon bone fractures in 2 and 3 year old race horses (Projects 2004-2005): Dr. M. Hurtig. This project is part of a more comprehensive program designed to reduce musculoskeletal injuries at Ontario racetracks by improving the monitoring of horses and racetrack surfaces. In previous work, the Comparative Orthopaedic Research Group has established the utility of using accelerometers for monitoring shoeing and track conditions. The current proposal expands the examination of horses presented from the Ontario Racing Commission Death Registry program to establish the incidence and location of micro fractures in the canon bones. Quantitation Ultrasound, a non-invasive technology that can be used on living horses for assessment of bone quality, will be correlated with three-dimensional imaging to link speed of sound measurements with bone pathology."

This has matured in 2007-2008 as follows:

"Non-invasive surveillance of cannon bone and joint health in racehorses by quantitative ultrasound and bio markers: Dr. A. Cruz.
This project is part of a larger ongoign program to identify and prevent catastrophic bone failure in thoroughbred racehorses. The project will investigate and monitor the cannon bones and joint health of 2 and 3 year old racehorses and will determine their response to exercise. (Wow! Finally!). In the last two years we have identified from post-mortem specimens quantitative ultrasound locations in the cannon bone of racehorses that could predict bone failure and abnormal remodelling. Our findings showed severe joint disease of over 70% associated with subchondral bone disease in the fetlock joint. The present study will use the techniques and knowledge acquired from the previous study and evaluate the cannon bones of 32 two and three year old racehorses on a monthly bases during racing for 2 consecutive years."

The website indicates Dr. Cruz is studying such things as frequency and duration of training, number of races, racetrack design, identifying potential risk factors and identifying the effect of various training programs. Interestingly, he is using portable ultrasound to identify cannon bone quality from commencement of training to immediately identify horses at risk.

So, at U of Guelph, Ontario they're researching and you'd expect some solid info reasonably soon. Tomorrow I'll get on with the speculation here and look at what happens to the cannon bones at speed.

Training:
Mon. 6/30 Off.
Tues. 7/1 Nob is awol again. In prep for Wed. speed work both horses after warm up galloped riderless slow 1.5 miles.