The Interesting Case Of Dunkirk

Dunkirk's regrettable injury has numerous obvious ramifications, including the question how close were we to another 8 Belles on national TV. Real close and way too close for comfort are thoughts that come to mind. I've advocated minimum training and racing standards for entry. Might have barred most of the Belmont field, but, can we continue to play this sort of roulette with the sport?

The high profile Dunkirk and his hind condylar fracture also ties in with the present blog subject as I've been considering that Todd Plecher style training may be a dividing line between appropriate and inappropriate training for fracture resistance.

What caused the Dunkirk near catastrophe? First discard a few preliminaries regarding the usual that breeder's are giving us unsound horses including the particular instant of Unbridled's Song.

While there may be a grain of truth to this that might debatable at great length, if there is any breeding connection to what happened to this horse, I might consider more the following:

1. Taller, lankier youngsters will produce more injuries. This is nothing new.
2. Albino oriented horses, including grays, quite possibly might have a genetically weaker bone structure. Every farrier e.g. understands that white hoofs are significantly weaker than solid colored hoofs. I've long considered that this weakness may well extend on up from the hoof into the white socked portion of a horse's anatomy, and that gray horses might have the albino weakness factor throughout their bone structure. Notice Dunkirk's solid white left forleg in the photo! Minimally, I believe these sorts of horses in terms of color require extra-ordinary training, particularly with larger horses.
3. If you watch the Unbridled's Song sales yearling go through the ring, year after year you will see a bunch of weak, hot housed youngsters emanating from Taylor Made that has its sales "hot-housing" instructions on its website. These instructions are hardly conducive to solid bone development and imo put Unbridled's Song youngsters behind the developmental eight ball from the get go.

Next post, a look at Dunkirk's handling.

Training:
Below is a video of heat #2 of Rollin' Rodney's Monday work. The planned 1.5f at :14 goes in about :16 as the horse shied away from the camera.
Tues. was Off due to weather.
Wed. we decided fast riderless in the mud instead of slow tack work on soft grass. Tough workout.