if he goes i think he gets atleast a top 5 finish
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I am not sure how they could have come up with that as a result of testing and blood work after the fact.That makes no sense to me.
The blood work can point to a variety of things that can show that the horse is lacking biologically in many areas but a guess of a belly ache, is as close as they could come after the fact.
"Belly aches"do indeed happen to horses but no very often.These are called out as various stages of Colic.
Horses can show signs of colic at any time and it is quite obvious when they display symptoms.Typically digging aggressively in there stall , laying down and getting up repeatedly,breaking out in a sweat,biting at there sides, etc. are the main symptoms.
I doubt very seriously that a colic stricken horse could only lose the
Wood by a length.In most cases they would warm up very poorly and be scratched if they even made it that far.If a horse ran under those conditions most would be eased up during the race.The rider would know something was wrong .
Colic can be fatal.In severe cases , surgery is quickly required.It is nothing to play with.
Horses can not regurgitate.As a result,what goes in ,must be crapped out.Belly aches can be treated in most cases with drugs.A tranquilizer would be the first shot given in all probability.( You can not race if tranquilized, a positive test would occur.Also, you would risk possibly killing the horse.)That helps loosen up the muscles and relax the animal.Compaction of the feces is also common( no crap in the stall over a longer than usual period of time). That just makes things more complicated.Horses crap roughly 10 times a day. Not following that schedule will make a horse very sick very fast.
I can go on and on but the bottom line is that while never racing in the Wood in my career, and losing roughly 5,000 races,I never used the belly ache excuse after the race.
Maybe I should have.
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I think he had a surgery over the winter that they are trying to keep quiet by wagging the dog.Comment