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31st August 2001, 01:43.35 PM
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Point Given Retired After Tendon Injury Detected in Left Leg
by Ray Paulick
Date Posted: 8/31/01 1:32:57 PM
Last Updated: 8/31/01 2:17:28 PM
Leading Horse of the Year candidate Point Given, now retired.
Photo: Mike Corrado
Leading Horse of the Year candidate Point Given has been retired because of a strain to a tendon of his left foreleg, trainer Bob Baffert told The Blood-Horse on Friday. The strain was detected on Thursday morning, when Point Given had been expected to return to the track for the first time after his victory in last Saturday's Travers Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga. "I've had to retire a lot of good horses, but I never felt like this," Baffert said. "We were just beginning to tap into his greatness."
"After the Travers, he was fine," Baffert said. "There was absolutely no problem, so it's hard to say how this happened. The day before he'd been rearing and was a little wild, so we decided to give him an extra day off. When the groom took the poultice off him yesterday, he noticed the heat in the area just below his knee. We iced him and it looked good, but an ultrasound (by veterinarian Vince Baker) showed a little strain."
"This horse had legs like a tree trunk," the trainer added. "When we found out what was wrong, I almost broke down in tears."
Baffert consulted with Point Given's owner, Saudi Arabian Prince Ahmed Salman, who was at Del Mar where Point Given is stabled, and with Richard Mulhall, racing manager of Salman's Thoroughbred Corp. Baker said it was the kind of injury that would require four to six months of rest to completely heal, and Baffert said the decision was made to retire him. "If you go on with him now it's going to tear," Baffert said. "We could rest him, but we all agreed that with a horse like this you just can't take a chance. A normal horse you could go on with, but he's just too good a horse to take any risk. The Prince said this horse has been too good to him and to the whole racing world."
The Travers win was an emotional victory for Salman, whose brother, Prince Fahd Salman, died
:( :( :(
Point Given Retired After Tendon Injury Detected in Left Leg
by Ray Paulick
Date Posted: 8/31/01 1:32:57 PM
Last Updated: 8/31/01 2:17:28 PM
Leading Horse of the Year candidate Point Given, now retired.
Photo: Mike Corrado
Leading Horse of the Year candidate Point Given has been retired because of a strain to a tendon of his left foreleg, trainer Bob Baffert told The Blood-Horse on Friday. The strain was detected on Thursday morning, when Point Given had been expected to return to the track for the first time after his victory in last Saturday's Travers Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga. "I've had to retire a lot of good horses, but I never felt like this," Baffert said. "We were just beginning to tap into his greatness."
"After the Travers, he was fine," Baffert said. "There was absolutely no problem, so it's hard to say how this happened. The day before he'd been rearing and was a little wild, so we decided to give him an extra day off. When the groom took the poultice off him yesterday, he noticed the heat in the area just below his knee. We iced him and it looked good, but an ultrasound (by veterinarian Vince Baker) showed a little strain."
"This horse had legs like a tree trunk," the trainer added. "When we found out what was wrong, I almost broke down in tears."
Baffert consulted with Point Given's owner, Saudi Arabian Prince Ahmed Salman, who was at Del Mar where Point Given is stabled, and with Richard Mulhall, racing manager of Salman's Thoroughbred Corp. Baker said it was the kind of injury that would require four to six months of rest to completely heal, and Baffert said the decision was made to retire him. "If you go on with him now it's going to tear," Baffert said. "We could rest him, but we all agreed that with a horse like this you just can't take a chance. A normal horse you could go on with, but he's just too good a horse to take any risk. The Prince said this horse has been too good to him and to the whole racing world."
The Travers win was an emotional victory for Salman, whose brother, Prince Fahd Salman, died
:( :( :(