I’m sure somewhere in a near-year of blogs, I’ve mentioned that I have a dislocated left kneecap. It happened in a ballroom dancing incident the night before the Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity in October 2003: it’s nothing Tonya Harding, I literally slipped off my own dance shoe – and went back to dancing; only when I woke up the next morning to a knee the size of a grapefruit, did I know anything was wrong.
It’s been 6+ years: 2 doctors, a cortisone shot, countless physical therapists, and hundreds of dollars spent on braces and ridiculous shoes (though MBTs and FitFlops really are helpful).
Given that I weigh in under the Kentucky Derby’s 126lbs (and didn’t have surgery), I was surprised to see that 1200lb Summer Bird is back to jogging barely 3 months post-surgery for a nondisplaced condylar fracture to his right foreleg.
Kudos to trainer Tim Ritchey (and formerly Tim Ice) for getting the 3x Classic winner a) back to the barn, and b) back to the track. Jogging is a massive step forward for a horse who was heading directly from Japan to a surgery center to the breeding shed at the beginning of the year.
In a broader context, I like the synchronicity of both Mine That Bird and Summer Bird heading back to the track at virtually the same time. Racing might get to capitalize on simultaneous rivalries – Rachel Alexandra v Zenyatta and the Bird Boys – could we get really get that lucky?
