dullahan

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by DaTruth

Louie Roussel wasn't pleased with Jimmy Nichols after that work, but fortunately things worked out for Star in the end.

The irony of bringing up Risen Star is that he trained for the Belmont while battling a publicly reported injury to (IIRC) his right front suspensory. He was touch-and-go leading up to the race, eventually entered, started, and won by the length of the stretch.

Of course, he never ran again, either.

I could only imagine the outcry of such a situation in this day and age. Roussel might be crucified for even working the horse, never mind running him. I wonder if this was the ultimate deciding factor in Team O'Neill yanking I'll Have Another from the race (ie not so much the risk to the horse as the public backlash if things happened to go wrong).