Purebred Winchell’ epicentre undergoing treatment for an injury to his right front leg during the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on 5 November, the tournament that ended his racing career, having left Shantera Ranch near Versailles , Ky., January 13 to Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, where he will begin his academic duty for the 2023 season.
#EPICENTER started my new career @coolmoreamerica.
Sincerely thank @rebeccatbrace @JRosarioJockey Dr. Bramlage and the CEO of Lexington Metro for all for making this moment a reality pic.twitter.com/2vUABAMupq– DJFiske (@DJFiske) January 13, 2023
Baby is now 4 years old Not this time ponies, finalist of the 3-year-old men’s championship in 2022, were pulled up to participate in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland by jockey Joel Rosario and then transported to Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, where he was operated on the next day for a foreskin fracture, an injury to the cannon bone above the padlock.
Thoroughbred Winchell race manager David Fiske tweeted a video on Friday of Epicenter being loaded onto a wagon for delivery to Ashford Stud.
“He looks amazing, with all he’s been through,” Fiske told BloodHorse on Friday afternoon. “Hopefully he excels in his new career.”
Fiske thanked Shantera Farm’s Becky Maker, Rosario, surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage and the Lexington Metro Police Department for their roles in the care of Epicenter. Lexington PD provided escorts for horse ambulances transporting ponies from Keeneland to Rood & Riddle.
“Like everything else in horse racing, it’s a team effort, Dr. Bramlage and the guys at Rood & Riddle are great, and he’s lived at Becky Maker’s for the past two months on Shannon Run and she She did a great job working with him,” Fiske reported.
“When you look at the X-ray, you have to think that if Joel hadn’t noticed the problem and pulled him up so quickly, it could have turned into a composite fracture, and that never happened. all good.” he added.
Epicenter’s recovery is not without complications. Fiske said the original screws inserted during the first surgery were broken and the foal had to have a follow-up surgery in December.
“Dr Bramlage said, ‘I’ve gone on 500 of these and have never broken a single screw,'” he said. “It was around early December; he just started walking and I guess something changed and those screws just broke.
“After the second surgery, he is scheduled to be reevaluated and X-rayed again, and if all goes well, he will go to Ashford. He has been given the green light by Dr. Bramlage before that. during the week. He was walking twice a day and he could walk in Ashford as well as he could at Becky’s. He was starting to get a little heavy.”
Fiske then provided a follow-up tweet showing an image of Epicenter alongside the 2018 Triple Crown winner. justification at Ashford Stud. His booth is directly opposite the 2015 Triple Crown winner’s booth American Pharoah .
“He’s in the big boys’ barn,” Fiske commented. “I think he was happy to come out of his booth at Becky’s. He was walking twice a day but I think when the car pulled back he thought, ‘I don’t care where it’s going, I’m going. walking on it.’ I think he’s had enough of that rehab.”
This past summer’s winner of Travers Stakes (G1) and runner-up in both the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1), Epicenter set a 6-3-0 record in 11 starts for coach Steve Asmussen of the Hall of Fame, earning $2,940,639.
Fiske said the flying pony has resonated with fans in part because “it runs steadily.” After making his sixth September 2021 debut at Churchill Downs, Epicenter returned in November with a first win, then impressed in December with a 6.5cm race in the Gun Runner Stakes at the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. Coming in second against Call Me Midnight in Lecomte Stakes (G3) in January 2022, he returned with consecutive wins at Risen Star Stakes (G2) and Louisiana Derby (G2).
Favored to win the Kentucky Derby, he was caught in the final steps by a long shot Rich Strike, who rallied to deny him three-quarters of the way.
Fiske said: “I think being beaten the way he did in the Derby made him an instant celebrity. “Such a harsh loss, it was the fastest quarter-and-a-half opening game in Derby history, and an 80-1 horse beat him in the dark of the rope. There’s a lot of drama there. And people soon realized that he was probably the best 3-year-old in his crop.”
This story will be updated.
