One of the advantages of writing an end-of-week column about horse racing is the ability to let events from the previous weekend percolate into the soil of the game before passing judgment. In this regard, for all its attention-grabbing glory, there was no need to immediately weigh in on the striking performance of the 3-year-old colt Magnitude in the Risen Star Stakes (G2) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots on the evening of Feb. 15.
Other colleagues were not so lucky. The quick-twitch nature of today's media world required Magnitude's instant deification as the second coming of Bucephalus. The race itself was extolled as an effort for the ages, if not entirely understood, since the colt's victory by 9 3/4 lengths in stakes-record time represented an astounding leap from previous form. Reams were written about his pedigree. His connections were stunned but not surprised, if that is possible, and peered hopefully into the future.
One day later, the headline "Magnitude in fine shape after Risen Star shocker" appeared in the Daily Racing Form. For all apparent purposes, the rest of the crop would be running for second money May 3 in the 151st Kentucky Derby (G1)—at least based on the Risen Star speed figures. Then came the results of the x-rays on Magnitude's left fore ankle, and that was that. He would require surgery to remove a bone chip, effectively bringing a halt to what could have been an exciting 3-year-old springtime campaign.
We've been here before, of course, and by now, should have grown a thick carapace of resistance to chronic disappointments leading to the Derby. If Sir Gaylord, Buckpasser, Graustark, Hoist the Flag, Roving Boy, and Shared Belief can't make it to the first Saturday in May in one piece, why should any horse ever generate unreasonable excitement? Magnitude, we hardly knew ye.
If they were being honest, even the most awestruck observers of Magnitude's Risen Star performance were left with a need to see him do it again before greasing the runway to greatness. But now the colt is in recovery from surgery, which is a whole different challenge, no matter how routine the procedure. Predictions of his future are pure speculation because certain hard and fast rules of physical recovery always apply.
Do they come back? You bet they do, sometimes. Sunday Silence celebrated his 1989 Horse of the Year campaign with knee surgery to remove a bone chip, then returned at 4 to win the 1990 Californian Stakes (G1) and finish a heartbreak second in the Hollywood Gold Cup Handicap (G1). In 1993, Cigar had arthroscopic surgery on both knees at the end of his 3-year-old season in California, then reappeared in New York the following year to begin rewriting the record books as a two-time Horse of the Year. Afternoon Deelites was a thrilling 2-year-old and on his way to a grand year at 3 when sidelined by a tendon. After a procedure to accelerate healing, in which the tendon undergoes a series of scalpel punctures, he recovered to win the 1995 Malibu Stakes (G1) and just missed in the 1996 Metropolitan Handicap (G1).
Magnitude's surgery was performed at Lexington's Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital by Dr. Larry Bramlage.
"Everything went fine," Bramlage said, two days later. "It was a straightforward chip fracture in the fetlock joint."
Magnitude will be in a stall at Becky Maker's Shantera Farm in nearby Versailles, Ky., for two weeks while the arthroscopic incisions heal. One is for the camera, and the other allows access for the device that removes the chip and cleans out the joint.
"After that, we'll walk him for three weeks," Bramlage said. "He can move, but we can't let him control his exercise yet. But then by 35 days, the arthroscopy portals will be healed and strong enough that we can put him back under tack if everything looks good."
When Magnitude took a funny step that fateful morning, two days after the Risen Star, it was because he experienced pain in the joint.
"The thing you have to stop is the debris shedding that the chip fragment causes, and that's what causes the pain," Bramlage said. "Once you remove the fragment and lavage out all the debris, the joint comes back to normal. We expect it to be tight, and other than a little thickening where the stabs are, you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two fetlocks."
Bramlage has performed countless fetlock surgeries. He was among the pioneers in the surgical technology of fetlock arthrodesis—ankle fusion—which he performed on 2-year-old Personal Ensign, enabling her to go on to an unbeaten Hall of Fame career.
The removal of a chip fragment from the ankle is akin to taking out a finger splinter when compared to ankle fusion. The prognosis is good for Magnitude's return to whatever form he was beginning to reveal, and that is not simply wishful thinking.
"We did a paper some years ago on 500 of these, and they performed just as well after surgery as they did before, so we expect him to be normal," Bramlage said.
Meanwhile, at Winchell Thoroughbreds, general manager David Fiske was adding Magnitude's name to the list of top runners wounded in action under the colors of Ron Winchell.
"It's gotten to be with that type of injury, whether it's a knee or an ankle, it's a matter of when, not if," Fiske said. "It's happened to so many of them, it's almost like going in to get a tooth filled. The biggest pain about it is, like Magnitude, in the timing."
Fiske rattled off an array of Winchell runners who had undergone routine chip removals to return in top form, including Echo Zulu, Disarm, and Wicked Halo. Being a son of Not This Time with a star-making performance on the cusp of a Triple Crown campaign put Magnitude in a slightly different category, however, which is why Fiske was asked if stallion offers already had coming calling.
"Not yet," Fiske replied. "But we did put some insurance on him yesterday, although Ron has never been one to win a big race with a horse and then retire him. I've always thought the point of the exercise was to get a racehorse. That's the fun of it. So, barring anything unforeseen, Magnitude should be back before too long."
Fate would suggest that at some point there will be a Kentucky Derby with the Winchell name attached. Verne Winchell, Ron Winchell's father, got to the eve of the 1962 Kentucky Derby with Donut King when a bruised foot knocked him out of the race. 2004 Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) winner Tapit was thwarted in the 2004 Derby by a sloppy track, while more recent Winchell runners have finished second (Epicenter ) and third (Gun Runner ) on Derby day.
"After the Risen Star, I thought, 'This is great. We're going to the Derby,'" Fiske said. "I've done it enough times now that you hold your breath and keep your fingers crossed and hope that if something happens, it's not you. This year it was. We've been pretty fortunate to dodge that bullet over the last few years. This time it caught up with us."
