THE INS AND OUTS OF REHABBING
MEASURES THAT ARE TAKEN TO SAFELY BRING THOROUGHBREDS BACK FROM INJURIES
By CHARLIE MCCARTHY December 2024
The process by which injured Thoroughbreds rehabilitate and then return to the racetrack now includes a “middle ground.”
“It’s a big change from where we were, let’s say 20, 30 years ago,” Richard Budge, general manager at Margaux Farm in Midway, Ky., said of nurturing horses through their recoveries from injuries. “It was kind of an immediate turnout in the paddock and then go straight to the racetrack. Now, I would say it makes a trainer’s job a lot easier. When they ship to the track, they can go right on with them.”
Thanks largely to modern medicine and technology, training and rehab centers have emerged as a middle step in the process of getting racehorses back to the track.
Following an injury, whether or not surgery was required, Thoroughbreds spend time healing, ehabbing, and getting in shape before being sent back to their trainers.
“I would say the benefit or the glory of the middle ground—let’s say a post-recovery, post-surgery, or freshening, or whatever the issue was—is very important,” Budge said. “And I find the steps very methodical. Sometimes it’s two steps for-ward, one step back.
“But really knowing the injury…each horse is an individual…you kind of cater your in-between rehab and training plan to the horse and individual, and to what injury he had."
Places such as Margaux Farm have tools with which to help horses get healthy and prepare to re-turn to competition. Budge’s team uses an aqua equine treadmill (commonly referred to as an aquatred), a cold saltwater spa, TheraPlate therapy, and salt therapy when helping a horse heal and become fit in order to get back to the track.
“The step that I really like that we do here at Margaux is the above-ground aquatred,” Budge said. “I find that it really gives a horse a good topline, gets a little fitness in them, gets them ready to be put under tack.
“The present aquatred we have here is the Irish one. I think (trainer) Aidan O’Brien has it over there in Ireland, and it’s chilled salt water. So, it can also be a spa.”
Jeff Hooper, chairman and CEO of the 190-acre Highlander Training Center in Sulphur Springs, Texas, also praises aquatreds.
“We can gradually bring them back into training with our aqua treadmills,” said Hooper, whose facility is owned by Larry Hirsch. “A lot of times these horses coming off a surgery may go on an aquatred program first, before they start going back to the race-track, where they can build some fitness and some core strength and build up their topline without the pounding of going to the racetrack right away.”
Training and rehab centers also rely on specialists, such as chiropractors and acupuncturists, and have tracks on which horses can get reacclimated to galloping and breezing.
Owned by Jim and Susan Hill, Margaux Farm has an undulating five-furlong course, a 1-1⁄16-mile Tapeta all-weather straight track with a three-and-a-half furlong teardrop finish, and a 1-1⁄4-mile undulating turf course.
Budge, who’s in his sixth year at Margaux after 17 years at WinStar Farm, said the five-furlong oval, where horses usually return to jog, is key in a horse’s progression.
“In my opinion, that’s part of the healing process or the process of getting them where we can get them to step forward,” he said. “A lot of horses, when you first start out, might be a little short, a little stiff (and) just need to get back into the motions.
“It’s a good step to obviously monitor their soundness, see if they need any extra help, and sometimes we have various tools, like the vibration plate, that is very good for horses with bone bruising or horses coming off a layoff.”
Highlander sports a five-furlong training track and a 1-3⁄8-mile undulating turf course.
“We’re fortunate that we have the ability, from the time the horses come to us to the time they go back to their trainers at the racetrack, we can really customize a program for each horse and monitor that horse’s progress throughout their rehab, whether it be post-surgery or post-injury or whatever it might be,” Hooper said.
Besides aquatreds, therapies used at Highlander include a cold-water spa, vibration plates, regenerative lasers, therapeutic blankets, and a nebulizer, which helps treat respiratory issues.
“A lot of what we’re doing here is horses coming off orthopedic surgery whether it be fetlocks or knees or whatever it might be from the racetrack,” Hooper said. “A lot of those surgeries are done at the Weems & Stephens Equine Hospital, or they may be done in Kentucky and then the horses are shipped here post-surgery. And then we deal with a lot of soft tissue injuries, too, whether they be suspensories or tendons, and ob-viously, there’s a different protocol for each case.”
Dr. David Stephens, Highlander’s attending veterinarian, said some soft-tissue injuries can be tricky when determining how close a horse is to returning to training.
“There’s some soft tissue things that, yes, the horse will look phe-nomenal in a shorter period of time…let’s say two-to-three-to-four months…(but) we know that that tissue has not fully healed (or) developed absolute strength and integrity so that it’s more prone to reinjury in an adverse situation , maybe a mis-step, an unlevel foot plant, or something,” Stephens said.
“We know this horse looks great, training like a bear, but if we push it too fast, it sure could unwind and fall apart like a cheap suitcase. We don’t want that to happen. It’s not in the best interest of the horse. So even though this horse says, ‘I’m ready, I’m fit, I want to go,’ we need to use good judgment, prudent judgment to make those determinations or assessments.”
Under Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority regulations, veterinarians are required to report the work done on a racehorse.
“Granted, you’ve got to be in a HISA jurisdiction, which Texas is not,” the doctor explained. “Having said that, horses that are here in Texas are not just germane to the state of Texas.
“A lot, if not the vast majority, will be shipped to other jurisdictions that are HISA compliant.”
Regardless of the particular injury being treated, Stephens offered a general approach when working to prepare the horse for a return to the racetrack.
“To me, the take home message is: identify the injury and then consider the associated data along with that injury, and treat the case as an individual,” he said. “Ultimately, the horse dictates the progres-sion and the rapidity of the rehab program.”
GMP Farm, a 100-acre rehabilitation and train-ing facility in Schuylerville, N.Y., opened in 2023 under owner Anthony Melfi. The farm includes a seven-furlong Tapeta track. There’s also a hyper-baric chamber, laser therapy, salt spa, cryotherapy, pulsed electromagnetic fields therapy, sand pens, and a vibration floor.
“A bowed tendon is a difficult injury,” GMP Farm stable manager Gary Gullo, a former and longtime trainer on the New York Racing Association circuit, said. “We try to give them enough time, but it’s like a bubble in a tire. You don’t know when that thing’s going to have a problem again. That’s probably our hardest injury to help.
“We have so much success with bleeders, which happens on a race-track, especially with these horses that (are not permitted to compete with Lasix in certain races). We get them in our chamber and it’s a heal-ing thing; it’s no way a performance enhancer, it’s just a healing (mea-sure). It fills the lungs and stops them from bleeding."
Gullo certainly can relate to trainers and owners who put their horses’ health in the care of his GMP Farm team, whose clients have in-cluded 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner White Abarrio and this year’s Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Dornoch.
“I know how it was when I was a trainer,” Gullo said. “I would send horses out to the farm to give them the time. Then all of a sudden, the horse would come back skin and bones, didn’t look right. Their coats were terrible, their feet. Everything was bad.
“It was like, ‘Oh my God. Now I have to give them another 30 days, 60 days.’ And that’s when they end up getting injured.”
Gullo’s status as a former trainer often helps in strengthening relationships with owners and horsemen.
“Without a doubt, and that’s the trust factor,” he said. “And Steve Rydowski (GMP farm manager) used to train horses; he was a jockey down at Calder for a long time, and he was my assistant for about 15 years.
“Yes, they have a lot of trust in us but they make it easy. They just say, ‘Listen, I have a horse coming in. When do you think we should pick up the other ones?’ They make it very easy for us.”
Some of the most talented Thoroughbreds and best-known trainers are among the clients of Margaux, Highlander, and GMP Farm.
Budge, Hooper, and Gullo all stressed the need for open communication with the owners and trainers, who almost always let the training centers dictate when the horses are ready to return to the track.
Each training and rehab center provides reports and videos as a means to keep owners and trainers updated on their horses.
“Our goal is to get that horse back to the trainer a sound and fit racehorse, able to keep progressing on to perform to the best of their individual ability,” Hooper said. “And then our goal is also to be very clear and open communicators with the trainer and the owner of that horse so they know what that horse has done here at Highlander. They know what challenges we may have faced with that horse. We want to be very transparent in our communications so that they’re dealing with all the information.”
While different trainers might seek to get their horses back at different levels, there’s one factor that often contributes to a general agreement against a premature return.
“The vast, vast, vast majority of trainers don’t want horses back that they’re going to have to rehab, that are just going to be put in stalls,” Stephens said. “Stall space on the backside is at a premium and train-ers know that their situation at the racetrack is not truly designed for rehabilitation. It’s designed for training and competition.”
Budge agreed. “Obviously, stall space is a little tight at most race-tracks, and most trainers would prefer a horse that’s ready to go on, rather than one they’ll have to spend three months getting ready.”
Whenever horses do return to training, they leave behind training center employees who love to see their work lead to on-track success.
“It’s very gratifying,” said Hooper, who mentioned that the 2024 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner, Seize the Grey, used Highlander’s aquatred before returning to trainer D. Wayne Lukas at Oaklawn Park earlier this year.
“Every member of the team here at Highlander, we follow these horses when they leave here. We take pride when they’re successful because we know these horses are athletes and a lot of them are going to have injuries and setbacks and if we can play a part in letting that horse be the best it can be, that means a lot to us. And that’s what keeps us going every day.” BH
Video