Saarland Displaced Soft Palate in Wood Memorial

• Email
• Print
• Tweet

For all you Saarland fans who are looking for some positive news, it was discovered after the Wood Memorial that the colt had displaced his soft palate. On Wedneday, veterinarian Mark Cheney came to New York from Kentucky to perform a tenectomy to correct the problem. The procedure technically prevents dorsal displacement of the soft palate.

"Johnny (Velazquez) said he heard him take a deep breath and he didn't let it out until the quarter pole," Trainer Shug McGaughey said. "So, just going by what Johnny said, we suspected he may have diplaced his palate. The procedure doesn't always work, but I've had good success with it, especially with Coronado's Quest."

Cheney said the problem can be caused by several reasons, but if the tenectomy does work, "it could make a helluva difference," Cheney added.

"What we do in a tenectomy is cut the tendons from the strap muscles that run down the center of the neck. Sometimes, the stress of a race will cause the muscles to pull back and contract, and that pulls the larynx and the epiglottis back as well, causing the soft palate to displace. The palate flips over the epiglottis and scrares the horse, which causes them to hold their breath and shut their air off. He definitely was doing it when I scoped him.

"The procedure usually helps 50 to 60 percent of the horses, and there really is no down side. If some other factor is causing them to do it, then they can do it again. But when it helps, I've seen horses change overnight. They can be ornery as hell, as Coronado's Quest was, then suddenly they get instant relief. And when they know they're not going to do it again, they're happy."

So, Saarland had two wind problems in the Wood. In addition to flipping his palate, he also was at a major disadvantage coming from behind and running into a 25 mile-per-hour headwind down the stretch, which is difficult on closers. Saarland also had thrown in rapid splits of :23 and :23 2/5 from the half to the three-quarters, which made it even more difficult for a closer like him to have enough left to put in a late run. He did manage to close his final splits in :24 3/5 and :13 1/5 into the wind to be beaten only 3 1/4 lengths.

McGaughey said Saarland will ship to Kentucky sometime next week, but he hasn't decided which day.

• Email
• Print
• Tweet