Uncle Mo gets treatment at Winstar
 

https://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/ra...star-rest.aspx


“It makes sense to keep him in the Lexington area, where he will have access to the best veterinary facilities,” said trainer Todd Pletcher. “Winstar Farm has a beautiful training facility which includes a [hyperbaric] chamber and a first-class staff. Our focus is to figure out what is going on internally with him and get him back to 100%. When we do figure this out, the horse is already fit so we don’t think it will take him long to get back to his two-year old form.”

sounds like repole has a partner

sounds like uncle mo has a new place to live.

Nice enough place for his new career, if his liver-GI tract is okay. Hope it is.

Arent you tired of this charade? Do you really think he has a tummy ache?

:zz: I didn't say anything about a "tummyache". I said liver - GI tract.

I think it's a great move. Hopefully after 5-10 treatments, his condition will move forward. I know everyones tired of the charade, but i think its quite obvious that something is lingering inside him. I hope they get to the bottom of this quick!

Didn't Devil May Care have a liver. How'd that work out for Todd?

Trouble is, based on what they've said, they don't seem like they know what to treat him for yet. I doubt there's any more charade than a troubling lack of a definitive diagnosis. I'm sure they already did liver enzyme repeats, ultrasounds, etc. as indicated and came up empty. Time to get him off the track and repeat.

This colt never races again. Please I am sure you realize this. How can They afford further damage to his rep? Do you have a mare you want to submit to the new Unbridled Song?

What I realize, as a vet, is that persistently "elevated enzymes" and a failure to respond to a course of antibiotics for a "GI tract" thing means you have to look more deeply at what is going on. I can think of multiple possibilities, some simple and curable, others not. And I can readily think of scenarios (diagnoses) that are completely compatible with what they have publicly said about the horse and his treatment/response to date. So no, I don't have to jump on a superficial assumption the horse is retired and they are lying to the public. I hope they find it, and I hope the horse is okay.

Dr.. The colt is retired. While I get you are 100% correct in your medical thoughts..Clearly the colts value can not be compromised and raced with potential failure, he has done enough, he is retired for stud service period!

What would you do guess what is wrong with him and hope he races wel again at Belmont in the Jim Dandy or retire him for 40k a load?

My first post said that I thought he was indeed retired, but they still have to find out what's wrong with him. I hope they find it, I hope it's not serious.

Who says that don't know what's wrong with him. You don't really think they are telling the truth. Just in case you haven't hear this recently but trainers do lie.

I am sure we can agree Uncle Mo can live a healthy life as a stud without much issue.. he will be fine with some R and R..
He will be porking mares like a champ Feb1 2012

I think breeding season begins Feb 15th.

Not if he's got something significantly wrong internally.

Yes, Mawhip, trainers lie. But from a medical standpoint, everything they've said publicly is common and obvious. I can think of at least 10 things that could cause persistently elevated "enzymes" (GGT, AST, AlkP, AST, etc if that's true) without a definitive response to an antibiotic trial.

Quite an elaborate ruse to go through if they just want to retire the horse, or if he has a musculo-skeletal injury they are trying to hide (the vets cleared the horse to run, btw, which is consistent with what they've told the public about the horses problems).

Geesh - I hope the horse turns out okay, and it ends up nothing serious, and he has a stud career (or better back to the races in the fall).

You guys think whatever the hell you want.

As a novice, he'd be breeding non-TB mares before that, to learn what to do.

Todd Pletcher said only one "enzyme" was persistently elevated, not several. That was the reason he said that they still hadn't identified the source of his ill health.

I know. That narrows it to one of four. That's why he needs to get off the track (as stuff there can influence two-three of them and cause elevations) and see what shakes out, if it persists.

Yeah its all a conspiracy

Ok whatever, he is done the risks of running poorly outweigh the potential success

Chuck this colt has been the subject of intense well known issue for months..I am surprised you arent falling into line, if he was 80 % he would have killed these plugs in the derby.. He didnt come back for whatever reason, and you know it!

Fall in line? I'm sure I can find out whatever there is to find out but I honestly don't care that much.

I just think the conspiratorial tone that involves this horse is amusing.

Answer me this Chuck. After the Wood, Pletcher said he had a gastrointestinal infection. Now he says they don't know what it is. So which one is it? A gastrointestinal infection or they don't know. If they don't know, why did they say he had a gastrointestinal infection.

You can answer or I coud tell you that Pletcher made up the whole thing after the Wood so he wouldn't have to keep answering the question as to why Uncle Mo looked like a 600 pound donkey.

You do understand that the patient doesn't talk and sometimes you treat what you think is the main issue but that winds up being a secondary issue? Despite what you read on the internet there aren't a lot of clear cut issues when you are dealing with internal issues of thoroughbreds.

Do you seriously think that Todd Pletcher wants to pretend like he doesn't know what is the matter with his horse if he does? What would be the benefit of this?

I think he knows that it's not some gastrointestinal tract infection. Most likely, he used that as a cover-up for something he knows is probably more serious because he knows first hand what happens to horses when they get a serious diet of his juice.

He was about 75% and was beaten easily in the Wood. Nothing he's done this year is even close to his maiden win last summer. Either he's another junior varsity star that found himself lacking when the rest of the class caught up to him at varsity or whatever is wrong with him has been going on for a while.

So we are back to the conspiracy theory again? What is there to cover up? Is Uncle Mo going to sue for malpractice? If they were going to make something up why not something simple?

Do people really believe that this kind of stuff doesn't happen all the time? This is a very inexact science. I had a filly go bad on me last fall and we were never able to get her right despite her not getting any "juice" and not a single member of the press even knowing her name. It happens.

Coincidence or not, the question marks surrounding Uncle Mo's physical condition got launched into the stratosphere when it was announced a couple of weeks ago that Devil May Care was euthanized and that she had been suffering from lymphosarcoma.

Certainly, that disease doesn't happen all the time, especially not to 3yo horses, within the same barn, within a few months of each other.

While it's a ridiculously huge leap to say that Uncle Mo has the exact same disease, from the outside looking in, he has similar (albeit vague) signs she exhibited last fall, was initially diagnosed as having a GI insult like her, and also has tests revealing a dreaded "elevated enzyme". So you can certainly see where these morbid, cynical predictions come from.

At the very least, this conspiracy theory has a bit more firepower than the usual accusations thrown around during the Gulfstream meet after so many open length, triple digit BSF victories in stakes and allowance races.

In my opinon, Pletcher had to come up with something that would explain Uncle Mo's physical appearance, i.e massive weight loss. So he comes up with a gastrointestinal tract infection. If you believe that's what it is then fine. I don't.

The horse has classic symptoms of a subtle chronic active problem with his liver or gastrointestinal tract (there could be one or two other things going on). The horse has had a battery of diagnostic tests at a referral hospital, a few possibilities for cause where determined based upon the results, the horse was placed on a specific course of treatment (medicine 101 for this presentation, btw) and when the course of treatment was done the horse still isn't 100%. So now they have to continue to try and determine what is going on.

Looking at it from a medical point of view, nothing secretive or conspiratorial or weird about that in the least.

In Pletcher's barn it's likely that Uncle Mo has long been on Gastroguard (or something similar) on a regular basis. For that reason, my initial reaction was that, if he's got something wrong in the GI tract, it must be something pretty serious. Does this follow, or are they completely unrelated?

Hey pg1985 who did you bet in the Derby?

I don't know why this is so tough for some to embrace. My veterinarian friends echo what you are saying.

The ol' dartboard approach. This I believe more than the conspiracy, but I've been wrong on every other aspect of this story, so who knows.

I think what some people are saying is:

The horse had an infection( which was treated) but was still not good enough to Win the derby. So instead of losing and perhaps deminishing his value, they said the problem was lingering. Many think the horse has not advanced since last year and he had a leg issue. Don't run and lose and many will remember how good he was last year. Continue to run and lose and deminish his value. They are doing the right thing for their horse and their wallet.

I am trying to figure out why 1 horse that died from cancer is such a smoking gun in your mind? I was under the impression that Pletcher has a rep for treating all the horses the same using basically the same tonics and elixirers on all. So wouldnt there be more horses getting this cancer then just one?

My point of all this is that you can't believe a word of what Pletcher and Repole are saying. Whether they don't know or Pletcher is covering up a condition that he doesn't want anybody to know about, I'm not sure. But with his track record, I'm not giving him the benefit of any doubt.

That's because we are conspiratorial, and all stick together ;):eek: