From Racing Post: St Nicholas Abbey suffers career ending injury By David Baxter 9:12AM 23 JUL 2013 ST NICHOLAS ABBEY, favourite for Saturday's Betfair-backed King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, has suffered a career ending injury. Coolmore Stud tweeted on Tuesday morning: "St Nicholas Abbey suffered a serious career ending injury at Ballydoyle this morning, vets are currently attending to him. "We hope to save him for a career at stud, a further update will be posted later." Trained by Aidan O'Brien, the six-year-old had won both his starts this year, landing the Dubai Sheema Classic on World Cup Night at Meydan, then following up in the Investec Coronation Cup on Derby day. Victory in Saturday's race would have been a seventh at Group 1 level for St Nicholas Abbey, who amassed nearly £5 million in total prize-money, winning nine of his 21 starts. More to follow...
At a guess I'd say a fracture of some kind. The fact that they have said they "hope" to save him for stud suggests to me that the injury could prevent him from being physically able to cover mares, which would, I speculate, hint at a hind limb injury. It could also be tendon/ligament related but these usually heal given time - I think 2 years is the average for a tendon to fully heal.
My initial thought was a tendon/ligmanet injury. My ex-racer used to pull his tendon alot- come in from the field could hardly walk and his leg swollen like a tree trunk- but it must be alot worst than than that . Once they do something to thier tendons they are very prone to do it again. But as i said it sounds alot worst than that- Hope he is ok!
We had one with 2 suspensory ligaments gone. It was hard work having to walk him every day, starting off 5 mins then 10 mins. Wasn't allowed to trot but he was dying to. Used to wander down the road sit down on some grass while he had a munch and then wander back. Can't remember how long before he went back into work but he was definitely back to normal within 2 years. Much quicker with stem cell treatment. If it's a fracture, I wonder how it compares with Mill Reef's
Very disappointed to hear this today as I felt he was really beginning to show the potential Coolmore always thought he had in the last 12 months. Hope he recovers to spend quality time with the mares. I also had him as the third leg of a treble, (Pearl of Africa and Dank had already gone at the Curragh last weekend) so was cursing my luck until I checked my PP account just now and found they voided the SNA part of the bet
Latest update via Twitter: St Nicholas Abbey suffered a fractured pastern during a routine piece of work at Ballydoyle this morning. He is currently in a comfortable condition at Fethard Equine Hospital, where he is scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning. Sounds promising as if it were a very serious injury they'd be operating right now. For those not up on their equine anatomy, the pastern is made up of two bones between the cannon bone (the long bone of the lower leg) and the hoof:
Gutted for the horse, a horse I really grew to love! Felt he was underrated due to his 3 yr old hype but a superb older horse
Latest: St Nicholas Abbey has come through surgery By Stuart Riley 9:32AM 25 JUL 2013 ST NICHOLAS ABBEY has come through a lengthy surgery to fuse his pastern and is recuperating in intensive care at John Halley's Fethard Equine Hospital. He faces a long recovery but on Thursday morning was described as comfortable. More to follow . . .
