BREEDERS' CUP NOTEBOOK
In Win, Trainer Finds Painful Memories Flooding Back
Sunday, November 5, 2006; Page E03
LOUISVILLE, Nov. 4 -- Victory in the Breeders' Cup was bittersweet for trainer Michael Matz, who sent out Round Pond to win the $2.26 million Breeders' Cup Distaff.
The trainer of Barbaro watched his filly win while Pine Island broke down on the back side of the track. The winner of the historic Alabama this summer at Saratoga fell violently to the ground, suffering a dislocation of the left front fetlock joint, tearing open her skin. She was quickly euthanized.
  Jockey Edgar Prado rides Round Pond to victory during the Breeders' Cup Distaff race at Churchill Downs on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006 in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Al Behrman) (Al Behrman - AP) |
In the stretch run of the Distaff, favorite Fleet Indian, who hadn't lost all year, suffered injuries to her suspensory brackets in the left front fetlock. Her injury was not life threatening.
The breakdown of Pine Island brought back memories of Barbaro in the Preakness Stakes. The jockey who went down on the 3-year-old Pine Island was Javier Castellano, who rode Bernardini to victory the day the Kentucky Derby winner was pulled up at Pimlico with a shattered right rear leg moments after the start of the race. This time Matz was on the other side of tragedy, trying to make the best of the situation, while grimly fielding the inevitable questions.
"I think everybody here feels the same way," Matz said. "Nobody wants to see a good horse hurt. It happens to us all; it's a tragic situation. I feel for [trainer] Shug [McGaughey] and the [owners]. I know what they're going through. You have mixed emotions about it. You just feel heartbroken."
At the National Turf Writers Association party on Wednesday night in Louisville, Wayne McIlwraith, director of the Orthopedic Research Center at Colorado State, presented an award to Dean Richardson, honoring the New Bolton Center chief surgeon for his care of Barbaro since the breakdown.
Three days later, McIlwraith was the on-call veterinarian at the Breeders' Cup, forced to announce the loss of a horse in contention for an Eclipse Award as the top 3-year-old filly in the country.
"The situation with Pine Island is the joint was completely disarticulated and the joint was open," McIlwraith said. "After it was examined by a veterinarian on the backside, they relayed to us that there was multiple injuries and no stability. If it's closed, you've got a good chance of repairing it. If it's open, it's not sustainable."
Pine Island was stabled this week right next to Round Pond and Matz at Churchill Downs.
"It's very hard to see," Matz said. "I've been in the situation myself."
Cup as Breeding Ground
With 13 largely unproven 2-year-olds, the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile looked wide open, but Street Sense made a strong case for being the leader of the division, winning by 10 lengths, the second largest margin of victory in any Breeders' Cup race.
The victory may be tempered by the fact that Street Sense, trained by Carl Nafzger and ridden by Calvin Borel, raced from the No. 1 post position, which produced five winners in seven dirt races on the Breeders' Cup card.
No colt in the 23-year history of the Breeders' Cup has ever won the Juvenile and gone on to win the Kentucky Derby the following spring, but Nafzger made it clear that was his goal.
"James [Tafel, the owner of Street Sense] said, 'Carl, if you think we should run in the Breeders' Cup, okay.' I said, 'Yes, it's our prep for the Kentucky Derby in 2007,' " Nafzger said. "The only problem I've got in winning the Derby is he's one in 18,000. There are 18,000 other colts out there now."
