{"id":124586,"date":"2020-01-17T09:52:05","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T17:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=124586"},"modified":"2020-01-17T11:07:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T19:07:34","slug":"report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Breeders Cup Report Cites Missed Chances to Save Mongolian Groom from Fatal Injury at Santa Anita"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, the Breeders\u2019 Cup released a report that stated there were opportunities to remove Mongolian Groom from racing in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic, and that the 4-year-old gelding received \u201cextra scrutiny\u201d before suffering a fatal injury in the Nov. 2 championship race at Santa Anita Park.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mongolian Groom, seen here in a previous race at Santa Anita, was put down at the California track after sustaining a broken left hind leg in the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Classic. A report requested by the Breeders’ Cup said opportunities were missed that could have scratched the horse from the race. (Image: Eclipse Sportswire\/Breeders Cup)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 25-page report penned by Dr. Larry Bramlage, a veterinary orthopedic surgeon at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., gave six recommendations for improving the process he said had a 99.6 percent accuracy rate. However, it was in the Classic, the final and biggest race of the two-day event, where Mongolian Groom<\/a> pulled up at the top of the stretch after breaking his left hind leg.<\/p>\n

Bramlage said the horse had small stress fractures behind both of his hind cannon bones, but they did not cause any inflammation prior to the race.<\/p>\n

A little more than one mile into the race the left hind fracture propagated, resulting in the chain of events, like dominoes falling, that created the fatal injury,\u201d the report stated. \u201cThere is no evidence that the horse\u2019s injury was ignored or covered up.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A copy of the report can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘Missed Opportunity’<\/h2>\n

Veterinarians examined 252 horses repeatedly in the days ahead of the races, as well as on race days. Those doctors scratched 13 horses, with 11 others withdrawn by the connections. During an on-track exam on Oct. 31, examining vets noted his left hind leg as \u201cquestionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that day, a video surfaced online showing some lameness in his left hind leg while he jogged. While the notes from the early exam led to six more exams, none of the team had a chance to see the footage. Bramlage blamed a review process stymied by time constraints.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a missed opportunity,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\n

Bramlage gave six recommended process improvements to better identify horses like Mongolian Groom that have injuries that could become catastrophic if allowed to race. One them was to have fewer veterinarians see the horses more often leading up to the race. Seven veterinarians observed the horse a total of 10 times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe fact that he had so many exams points out that the examining veterinarians had targeted him for extra scrutiny,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

He also called on officials to designate an area in the barns for future Breeders\u2019 Cups where horses that received extra scrutiny, like Mongolian Groom, could jog. That would allow vets to get a better sense for the injury. In the 2019 Breeders\u2019 Cup, that would have meant about two dozen horses to receive this additional evaluation.<\/p>\n

Fred W. Hertrich III, the chairman of the Breeders\u2019 Cup Board of Directors, said in a statement that the board would review and discuss the report at its next meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will also discuss these recommendations with the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition so the recommendations will have an even broader and more beneficial impact on our sport and reducing injury to our athletes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

PETA, however, was more critical of the report, especially in refuting a claim that CT equipment does not yet exist that could have helped identify Mongolian Groom\u2019s injuries. Kathy Guillermo, the organization\u2019s senior vice president, said in a statement the group called on the racing industry to conduct a trial with the imaging device five years ago.<\/p>\n

Track Surface Not Likely a Factor<\/h2>\n

The southern California track has received constant criticism over the past year, as nearly 40 horses have died there since late December 2018. Track officials even suspended racing for three weeks last March to investigate the track surface and delve deeper into possible causes for the deaths.<\/p>\n

However, Bramlage said the track did not appear to play a factor in Mongolian Groom\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

He noted that there had not been any significant amount of rainfall in the Los Angeles area in the lead up to the Breeders\u2019 Cup. During the shutdown, Santa Anita rebuilt its dirt track. The only complaint from some horsemen leading up to the Breeders\u2019 Cup was the track\u2019s depth. But no one complained of any inconsistencies along the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanta Anita had shown itself to be a safe racing surface since renovation,\u201d Bramlage said.<\/p>\n

After the Breeders\u2019 Cup, Santa Anita resumed racing when its winter-spring meet began on Dec. 28. Two deaths<\/a>, one in training and one race-related, happened in that first week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, the Breeders\u2019 Cup released a report that stated there were opportunities to remove Mongolian Groom from racing in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic, and that the 4-year-old gelding received \u201cextra scrutiny\u201d before suffering a fatal injury in the Nov. 2 championship race at Santa Anita Park. The 25-page report penned by Dr. Larry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":124598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14577,16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReport Cites Missed Chances to Save Mongolian Groom at Breeders Cup<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The report requested by Breeders' Cup officials gave six recommendations for improving the process he said had a 99.6 percent accuracy rate at Santa Anita.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report Cites Missed Chances to Save Mongolian Groom at Breeders Cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The report requested by Breeders' Cup officials gave six recommendations for improving the process he said had a 99.6 percent accuracy rate at Santa Anita.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-17T17:52:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-17T19:07:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Mongolian-Groom.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"774\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"527\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/\",\"name\":\"Report Cites Missed Chances to Save Mongolian Groom at Breeders Cup\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Mongolian-Groom.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-17T17:52:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-17T19:07:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\"},\"description\":\"The report requested by Breeders' Cup officials gave six recommendations for improving the process he said had a 99.6 percent accuracy rate at Santa Anita.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Mongolian-Groom.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Mongolian-Groom.jpg\",\"width\":774,\"height\":527,\"caption\":\"(Image: Eclipse Sportswire\/Breeders Cup)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Betting\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Horse Racing\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/horse-racing\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Breeders Cup Report Cites Missed Chances to Save Mongolian Groom from Fatal Injury at Santa Anita\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\",\"name\":\"Steve Bittenbender\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Steve Bittenbender\"},\"description\":\"Steve Bittenbender covers Midwest and Gulport news for Casino.org. He also specializes in sports betting and horse racing. Steve is a veteran reporter and brings more than two decades of experience covering sports, business and politics. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Steve has also covered major collegiate and professional sports for the Associated Press and the Louisville Courier-Journal and is frequently featured on local network TV newscasts and podcasts for his horse racing business and legislative expertise. A Reuters contributor, he has also previously served as editor for Government Security News. Steve lives in Louisville, Kentucky -- the epicenter of the US horse racing industry -- with his wife and son. He is also an avid poker player, having learned from his uncle as a wholesome after-school pastime with cookies and milk. Contact Steve at stevebittenbender@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/steve-bittenbender\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Report Cites Missed Chances to Save Mongolian Groom at Breeders Cup","description":"The report requested by Breeders' Cup officials gave six recommendations for improving the process he said had a 99.6 percent accuracy rate at Santa Anita.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Report Cites Missed Chances to Save Mongolian Groom at Breeders Cup","og_description":"The report requested by Breeders' Cup officials gave six recommendations for improving the process he said had a 99.6 percent accuracy rate at Santa Anita.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-01-17T17:52:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-01-17T19:07:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":774,"height":527,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Mongolian-Groom.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Steve Bittenbender","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Steve Bittenbender","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/","name":"Report Cites Missed Chances to Save Mongolian Groom at Breeders Cup","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Mongolian-Groom.jpg","datePublished":"2020-01-17T17:52:05+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-17T19:07:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2"},"description":"The report requested by Breeders' Cup officials gave six recommendations for improving the process he said had a 99.6 percent accuracy rate at Santa Anita.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Mongolian-Groom.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Mongolian-Groom.jpg","width":774,"height":527,"caption":"(Image: Eclipse Sportswire\/Breeders Cup)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/report-cites-missed-chances-to-save-mongolian-groom-at-breeders-cup\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Betting","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Horse Racing","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/horse-racing\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Breeders Cup Report Cites Missed Chances to Save Mongolian Groom from Fatal Injury at Santa Anita"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2","name":"Steve Bittenbender","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png","caption":"Steve Bittenbender"},"description":"Steve Bittenbender covers Midwest and Gulport news for Casino.org. He also specializes in sports betting and horse racing. Steve is a veteran reporter and brings more than two decades of experience covering sports, business and politics. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Steve has also covered major collegiate and professional sports for the Associated Press and the Louisville Courier-Journal and is frequently featured on local network TV newscasts and podcasts for his horse racing business and legislative expertise. A Reuters contributor, he has also previously served as editor for Government Security News. Steve lives in Louisville, Kentucky -- the epicenter of the US horse racing industry -- with his wife and son. He is also an avid poker player, having learned from his uncle as a wholesome after-school pastime with cookies and milk. Contact Steve at stevebittenbender@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/steve-bittenbender\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}