Purebred Winchell’ epicenter was receiving treatment for an injury to his right front leg during the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on November 5, had left Shantera Farm near Versailles, Ky., January 13 for Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, where he will begin his breeding service for the 2023 season.
Baby is now 4 years old Not this time ponies, finalist of the 3-year-old men’s championship in 2022, were pulled up to participate in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland by jockey Joel Rosario and then flown to Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, where he underwent surgery the next day for a capsular fracture, an injury to the cannon bone above the zipper that ended up his racing career.
Thoroughbred Winchell race manager David Fiske tweeted a video on Friday of Epicenter being loaded onto a horse-drawn carriage for delivery to Ashford.
#EPICENTER started my new career @coolmoreamerica.
Sincerely thank @rebeccatbrace @JRosarioJockey Dr. Bramlage and the CEO of Lexington Metro for all for making this moment a reality pic.twitter.com/2vUABAMupq– DJFiske (@DJFiske) January 13, 2023
“He looks amazing, with all he’s been through,” Fiske told BloodHorse on Friday afternoon. “Hopefully he excels in his new career.”
Fiske thanked Shantera Farm’s Becky Maker, Rosario, surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage, and the Lexington Metro Police Department for their roles in the care of Epicenter after he was injured. Lexington PD provided escorts for horse ambulances transporting ponies from Keeneland to Rood & Riddle.
“Like everything else in horse racing, it’s a team effort, Dr. Bramlage and the guys at Rood & Riddle are great, and he’s lived at Becky Maker’s for the past two months on Shannon Run and she He did a great job working with him,” Fiske said.
“When you look at the X-ray, you have to think that if Joel hadn’t noticed the problem and pulled him up so quickly, it could have turned into a composite fracture, and that never happened. all good.” he added.
Epicenter’s recovery is not without complications. Fiske said the original screws inserted during the first surgery were broken and the foal had to undergo a second surgery in December.
“Dr Bramlage said, ‘I’ve done 500 of these and have never broken a single screw,'” he said. “It was around early December; he just started walking and I guess something moved, and those screws just broke.
“After the second surgery, he is scheduled to be reevaluated and X-rayed again, and if all goes well, he will go to Ashford. He has been given the green light by Dr. Bramlage before that. during the week. He was walking twice a day and he could walk in Ashford as well as he could at Becky’s. He was starting to get a little heavy.”
Fiske then provided a follow-up tweet showing an image of Epicenter alongside the 2018 Triple Crown winner. justification at Ashford Stud. Epicenter’s booth opposite the Triple Crown 2015 winner’s booth American Pharoah .
“He’s in the big boys’ barn,” Fiske commented. “I think he was happy to come out of his booth at Becky’s. He was walking twice a day but I think when the car pulled back he thought, ‘I don’t care where it’s going, I’m going. walking on it.’ I think he’s had enough of that rehab.”
Bred in Kentucky by Westwind Farms in addition to candy ride mare silent candy Epicenter was a $260,000 purchase of Thoroughbred Winchell from Bettersworth Westwind Farm shipment for Keeneland’s September 2020 Annual Sale.
Winner of Travers Stakes (G1) in 2022 and runner-up in both the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1), he made a 6-3-0 record in 11 starts for coach Steve Asmussen’s side. Hall of Fame, earned $2,940,639.
Epicenter wins 2022 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Racecourse
Fiske said the flying pony has resonated with fans in part because “it runs steadily.” After the sixth when it debuted in September 2021 at Churchill DownsEpicenter returned in November with its first win, then impressed in December with a six-and-a-half long match in Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds Racecourse & Slots. Second by a head to Call Me Midnight in Lecomte Stakes (G3) in January 2022, he returned with consecutive wins in Risen Star Stakes (G2) and Louisiana Derby (G2).
Favored to win the Kentucky Derby, he was caught in the final steps with a long shot rich attack who gathered to reject him by 3/4 of the length.
Fiske said: “I think being beaten the way he did in the Derby made him an instant celebrity. “Such a harsh loss, it was the fastest quarter-and-a-half opening game in Derby history, and an 80-1 horse beat him in the dark of the rope. There’s a lot of drama there. And people soon realized that he was probably the best 3-year-old in his crop.”
Fiske noted that Epicenter received a warm reception from breeders, noting that, “He was basically fully booked.”
He said he was finalizing the list of mares from the Winchell breed band that would be sent to the ponies. One being considered is Unable to mine 3 year old baby champion in 2014.
“Her past two ponies are by gunman so maybe we’ll mix it up a bit,” he said.
Charlie O’Connor, sales manager for Coolmore America, welcomed Coolmore’s late, legendary Giant’s Causeway foal.
“We’re thrilled to have Epicenter join the lineup at Ashford,” he told BloodHorse. “He’s an incredibly talented racehorse by the Giant’s Causeway’s best son, Not This Time, and he’s incredibly handsome. We’re delighted by the caliber of mares the breeders have. create and Winchells is supporting him.”
