Well Chief Out For Season

Originally posted by Unsinkable Boxer@Dec 3 2007, 05:13 PM
Can't think of any standard bearer now at Pond House, especially for the big staying races, shame because David is a likeable chap....
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I know what you mean but a lot of stables would like to have the liks of Celestial Gold and Our Vic in their ammo.
 
Chester Barnes version on Pipe's website reads thus

You all know that Well Chief is out for the season which is a big blow for the yard and owner David Johnson. Jonothan Lower worked him on Saturday morning and he worked extremely well but afterwards head lad Eddie Buckley found heat in his leg. Unfortunately he will miss the rest of the season. He is perfectly sound but if it is the start of something it is best to stop. He was due to make his seasonal debut in the Tingle Creek at Sandown on Saturday and it is such a shame as he looked in tremendous shape and has been working really well at home. We were confident that he would have run a big race at the weekend. It always seems to be the good horses that get the problems, probably because they try the hardest, even on the gallops.
 
Quite easily as the two are mutually exclusive events, albeit that they can often go hand in hand. Heat in a leg means precisely that; that there is heat in an area of the leg. A horse being sound means that it is sound and not lame. Ergo as the two eventualities are completely different events and not always directly associated there is every chance that the two do not occur simultaneously - it's much like asking "as you have a cold, you must have a cough, how can you have a cold without a cough?"
 
Such a shame.

Was looking forward to seeing this horse in action again, especially at the tingle creek at the weekend.

Hope he recovers fully and we do see him racing again.
 
I really do hope they will retire this horse. I didn't enjoy watching him last year - after such a very bad breakdown you always fear the worst, esp under max pressure in a race like the Ch Chase run at breakneck/breakleg speed. He's quite a leggy spindly looking horse - quite refined for NH - and I never felt really comfortable watching him. He's a beauty and a trier and I'd love to think he'll be found as good home - but noises coming out of the yard seem to indicate the problem isn't that serious and they may rest him again and have another go... Very hard to retire your stable champ unless it's inevitable I guess.
 
I only know it was quite a bit worse than was published, but can try to find out exactly
 
Originally posted by Gareth Flynn@Dec 4 2007, 01:21 PM
How bad was the first breakdown?
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apparently not bad at all and connections were carefull not to even use that word "breakdown" .... but we are all in the game long enough to know that is is very very rare for a horse to come back from a tendon injury as good as prior to it - I am surely awayre that some do come back for whatever short a time, and at whatever sort of level - the only exception I can really think off must be Inglis Drever, who defies this again and again, but in 99% this does not happen - its in the very nature of the tendon.

shame though for sure.
 
I have been strongly led to believe that the initial tendon injury suffered by Well Chief was very much underplayed in the press - apart from anything else the horse had nearly two years off. That simply isn't the case if there was hardly anything to the injury, as claimed repeatedly in the press.
 
Why does anyone do anything? Why did Fred West murder his kids and put them under a patio? I can't pretend to understand human nature Gareth, but it is strongly my belief on all I have been told and going by my own observations of it all that WC's injury was very much played down. Possibly an attempt at justification in bringing the horse back into training? I don't know!
 
Horse was working as normal when I was at yard last november and he ran fine at Newbury after.
He was going to run in seven days and picked up this injury on Saturday.
If he was as F**ked as everyone thinks, he would not have been entered.
Just bad luck shrug::
 
I'm not suggesting he was already crocked - I'm saying that in my belief the original injury was more serious than it was being made out to be. In such circumstances (ie after a serious injury, especially tendon related) a horse tends to be on borrowed time until it goes again, I'm afraid. No-one can be blamed for them going again as no warning signs tend to be given, you can only crack on and hope for the best.

I just hope they don't try to bring him back for a second time.
 
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