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Chelokee's attitude good one day after suspensory injury Grade 3 winner CHELOKEE (Cherokee Run) was feeling playful Saturday morning, one day after suffering torn suspensory ligaments in his right front leg during the stretch run of Friday's Alysheba S. (G3). "He tore the ligaments in the bottom of his (right front) ankle," explained Dr. Larry Bramlage, the on-call veterinarian for the American Association of Equine Practitioners. "It's those ligaments, the suspensory apparatus, that make a horse able to do what they do. The bones that went up the side of the leg that they thought was a fracture on the ambulance were actually sesamoid bones pulled five centimeters out of place. They're dislocated. "Amazingly, with such a good athlete, the (injury) didn't go through the skin. Everything else went when he dislocated the ankle because his leg was flopping out to the side. So almost all the support went, but he was able to stay up," Bramlage continued. "We protected the leg. It's incredible for what he did to not do more damage than he did. Because if it (the injury) goes out through the skin and bones get exposed to the racetrack surface, that's usually the last straw." The Michael Matz-trained Chelokee took a bad step at the head of the stretch in the Alysheba, and it was first reported the four-year-old had suffered a condylar fracture of his right front leg. That initial report brought back poignant memories of Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Barbaro, also trained by Matz, who suffered a similar injury in his right hind leg. Chelokee was transported by horse ambulance to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, on Friday. Bramlage said that the dark bay's attitude was good Saturday morning. "We actually had to put a traffic cone in his stall because he needed something to play with," Bramlage said. "He was trying to pull his IV line out of the ceiling. He actually did it once, pulled it out of the bag just because he's looking around for something to do." Bramlage said Chelokee's chances of recovery are "50-50" but couldn't say when surgery on the colt would take place. "We won't know that until after I see the soft tissue early in the week," he explained. Later on Saturday, Bramlage announced that Chelokee's cast had been changed earlier in the day. "He's actually doing quite well. His soft tissue swelling is greatly reduced. His blood supply is improving to the lower part of his leg. He will need a fetlock athrodesis, a fusion of the fetlock, trying to restabilize his leg. That will happen sometime this week. "His attitude couldn't be better. He's eating well, moving around his stall. He's in a special type of cast for this particular injury. His progress is good. "Somebody asked what the odds are. They're probably still about 50-50. He has to have a good surgical procedure, and he has to come through it well and he has to be stabilized in his ankle." Bramlage went on to explain about the mix-up regarding the initial report on Chelokee's injury being a condylar fracture. "Another question is why was the initial report from the ambulance that he had a similar injury to Barbaro when he didn't have any fractures. Well, he had a dislocated ankle, the same as Barbaro; his lower leg stuck out to the side like Barbaro's; and he had a piece of bone sticking up alongside of the cannon bone, which was like Barbaro's. Nine times out of 10 that will be a condylar fracture, and that's what the ambulance reported. "When we took the X-ray, that piece of bone that's up beside his ankle was actually the sesamoid bone, but it's 2 1/2 inches out of place so they couldn't tell in the ambulance that that wasn't a condylar fracture."
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