Mongolian Groom

In his first year as President and CEO of the Breeders' Cup, 38-year-old Drew Fleming has found himself trying to stage a global event in the midst of a global pandemic. In a socially-distanced phone call with TDN Publisher Sue Finley, he discusses the challenges and the triumphs of Breeders' Cup 2020. SF: You picked a heck of a year for this to be your first Breeders' Cup. DF: Well, this is my first Breeders' Cup as the CEO, but I've been working for the company since 2016. And then...

The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton Although the long-term implication of breeding trends on the soundness of racehorses was not an aspect that got covered in the post-mortem report released last week on Mongolian Groom (Hightail)'s fatal injury in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, the author of that analysis, Dr. Larry Bramlage, did address the topic in a Jan. 16 media teleconference that followed up on the study he was commissioned to write for the Breeders' Cup. And while the breeding-related remarks by the internationally respected equine orthopedic surgeon...

Veterinarians who work in the Thoroughbred industry are still a year or two away from being able to make better practical use of emerging digital imaging technologies to avoid racehorse injuries before they happen, but there are some low-technology tools and practices that can be implemented to identify at-risk horses at both high-profile racing events and on a day-to-day basis. That was the takeaway message in a half-hour Thursday teleconference that featured Dr. Larry Bramlage. The internationally recognized equine orthopedic surgeon was fielding media questions one day after the release...

The Breeders' Cup-commissioned investigation into the death of Mongolian Groom (Hightail) in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic was among the main subjects tackled this week in the TDN Writers' Room podcast, and the crew questioned whether or not the horse should have been scratched. Click here to listen.  The report revealed that examining veterinarians determined during pre-race examinations that Mongolian Groom was "stiff" and "choppy" behind, the reasons why he among 73 Breeders' Cup entrants put on a "watch list" and was one of 24 horses selected for "extra scrutiny"...

As the writers came on the air, the Breeders' Cup released a 25-page report on Mongolian Groom's injury, ushering in what may be a new era of transparency in horse racing. The writers talk about that, and have owner Willis Horton on as a guest. That and more on this week's Writers' Room podcast.

A Breeders' Cup-commissioned evaluation of the catastrophic injury that led to the euthanization of Mongolian Groom (Hightail) in the GI Classic has concluded that the gelding had small, pre-existing stress fractures in both hind cannon bones, and that when the one in his left hind displaced during the race, it created chain-reaction downward force that acted "as a screwdriver" to apply "a huge amount of torque to the bone," causing multiple fractures in that leg. The 25-page report, released Wednesday by the Breeders' Cup and authored by internationally recognized equine orthopedic...

Officials at Breeders' Cup Limited have issued a 25-page evaluation report from Dr. Larry Bramlage on the fatal injury suffered by Mongolian Groom (Hightail) during the final stages of the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Classic. His was the only injury among the 229 horses that raced during the two days of the Breeders' Cup. The entire evaluation as delivered to the Breeders' Cup Board of Directors can be viewed here. In trying to address the issue of why the injury happened, Bramlage stated that Mongolian Groom was "harboring a fine...