Another Michael Matz Colt Down
Chelokee Given a 50-50 Chance to Survive After Breaking Ankle
Chelokee, the inaugural (2007) Barbaro Stakes winner, trained by Michael Matz, who also taught Barbaro, suffered a broken right ankle in the Alysheba Stakes (gr.3).
Michael Matz-trained Chelokee snapped an ankle in the May 2nd running of the Alysheba Stakes, a grade 3 race held at Churchill Downs one day before this season's Kentucky Derby, the classic that Barbaro won with a breathtaking turn of foot. Ironically, four-year-old Chelokee won the first ever Barbaro Stakes at Pimlico last year on the Preakness Stakes undercard. Matz also schooled Barbaro. Chelokee was given a 50-50 chance of survival.
No Guarantees Concerning Thoroughbred Breakdowns
A thoroughbred trainer wouldn't reasonably expect to go through the trauma once again just two years hence of watching his current star horse break a leg in a race. Matz, a former Olympian dressage competitor, and a plane crash hero who saved other lives from engulfing flames, appeared devastated when his undefeated Barbaro blasted through the starting gate before the Preakness Stakes began, reloaded, then burst fourth to misstep and shatter his right hind leg.
Matz and jockey Edgar Prado exchanged manly tears that day on the dirt strip of Pimlico as Barbaro held the dangling leg aloft and calmly waited for help. Several months later, deadly laminitis dealt the brave colt his final blow.
Once again, Matz will wait to learn if his star can survive. According to attending veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage, Chelokee's chances of pulling through are just 50-50, the same original odds given Barbaro.
Chelokee's accident occurred one day before this season's Kentucky Derby, after which the filly Eight Belles broke down with horrific compound fractures to both front ankles and had to be euthanized on the track.
Many More Horses Survive Broken Bones
Injuries to Thoroughbred stars may seem the norm, but more horses survive than succumb to these broken bone affairs. Dr. Larry Bramlage was there at Churchill Downs to relate the extent of Chelokee's break down. Certainly, Chelokee's injury is career-ending, the chief of surgery at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky related. With luck, he explained, Chelokee will mend to become a stallion.
Chelokee had previously recovered from fetlock soreness in all four legs that kept him off the track during the second half of the 2007 season. Returning to the track Mar.29, Chelokee won an allowance race, then entered the Alysheba Stakes with jockey Ramon Dominguez aboard.
Dominguez said he felt he had the best horse in the race before the Chelokee's ankle collapsed. Chelokee was sailing true, then switched to his right lead at the top of the stretch and suddenly broke down.
That is how quickly the Thoroughbred bones can fail as four flying legs as thin as small tree branches inexplicably snap under the weight of one thousand soaring pounds.
