Triumph to tragedy: Limehouse colt Olredlgetcha dead after historic win

Olredlgetcha, who became the first blacktype winner for freshman stallion Limehouse when he took Canada's Victoria Stakes at Woodbine in his debut on June 14, died just nine days later, The Blood-Horse reports.

The Florida-bred 2-year-old out of the blacktype Cobra King mare Mystical Beauty apparently suffered a "slight puncture wound" in the race, and a staph infection set in. Symptoms arose on June 16 and the colt was shipped to Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. The Blood-Horse reports that the infection was "treated aggressively" but that it "rapidly spread to the joint capsule causing ... great suffering and a total deterioration of the hock."

Though the mode of death is completely different, the tragic story is reminiscent of the recent demise of Sailor's Cap, who was dead within days of his noteworthy victory over Kip Deville and others in the Poker S.-G3 at Belmont Park. The 4-year-old Distant View colt died of Colitis-X, a digestive tract disorder that is fatal nearly 100 percent of the time and can kill within three hours of the onset of symptoms.

We know these horses receive the best possible veterinary care, especially once they've achieved the status of Olredlgetcha and Sailor's Cap -- a first-out stakes winner and a multiple-graded stakes winner. The advances in medical and veterinary science tend to leave us thinking that virtually anything is treatable and that most ailments are survivable, and yet stories like these shake us with the harsh reality that sometimes we and our horses are all but helpless against the very worst nature throws at them.

This has to be a particularly tough loss for Sal and Colleen Simeone. Olredlgetcha was bred at their Sienna Farms and made his only race in the colors of their R Own Stables.

He was trained by Greg de Gannes and ridden to his victory by Emille Ramsammy.

My condolences to all concerned.