Читать книгу Genesis... - Welby Thomas Cox Jr. - Страница 11

Just a footnote of a personal nature, I once owned a beautiful thoroughbred trained by Angel Montano at The Fairgrounds in New Orleans. In a race there, the horse broke his hind leg. The attending Vet, Dr. Alex Harthill advised me to authorize putting the horse down.

I objected, asking Dr. Harthill to fashion a cast and sending the big horse to Ohio State’s Large Animal Clinic where he remained for several months after surgery. The surgery was successful enough to place “Clark Gable” the name given him by the surgical team because he was so handsome back in training after a year of dozing in the sun. First I put him in the pool to keep the weight off, then, weeks of long slow gallops, and miracle of miracles inside of two years, I ran Clarke back for one race at a mile and he won under a “hand ride.”

This is not to cast aspersions on Dr. Bramlage or his staff, because I know him well and know him to be a very competent surgeon because he operated on a couple of my horses who also came back from the surgery to race again. But my heart was so heavy over Alydar that I could only conjure this wonderful animal continuing his career at stud where he had been so successful, producing some of the world’s best athletes. While, Affirmed, the horse who beat him in all the Triple Crown races proved to be less successful at stud.

I’ll never forget Alydar, or Clarke and all the wonderful thoroughbred’s born to race, horses who have and demonstrate such courage each time they look through a bridle and face the starter in either a first race or one of several…it is the same job and the joy of racing.

- Welby Thomas Cox, Jr. (Editor)