Update by Jay Hovdey in today's DRF. Looks like a full recovery.
On the other side of the continent, another battle-scarred racing warrior turned the ripe old age of 10. The Tin Man, still in recovery mode in stall No. 1 at Richard Mandella's Santa Anita barn, was foaled on Feb. 18, 1998.
With any luck at all, The Tin Man would have been back in some sort of action by now for his owners and breeders, Ralph and Aury Todd. Maybe not in the 1 1/2-mile San Luis Obispo Handicap, which is Saturday's feature at Santa Anita, and which he won in February 2003. But certainly some kind of racing plan would have been cooking, if only he hadn't cracked a knee while emerging from the anesthesia administered during diagnostic surgery last October.
It was tense for awhile. The Tin Man's self-inflicted injury was more serious than any of the several racing maladies that he had weathered through a seven-year career, during which he won $3.3 million. Founder in an off leg was very possible, and the fracture was complex. But with the help of the occasional tranquilizer, and more hands on care than you can imagine, he is out of danger and ready for the next chapter of his remarkable life.
"We probably could have sent him to the farm a month ago, but I kind of like having him around," said Mandella, who can be seen late most mornings, hand-walking The Tin Man and letting him bask in the sun.
"The X-rays show good bone growth in the knee, although he's developed an arthritis on the outside of the knee," Mandella said. "He walks a little stiff and he always will. But he's dealing with it okay, and he's not in any pain."
The Tin Man, once a free-running geriatric hero who won the Arlington Million at age 8 and the Shoemaker Mile at 9, now must be content with being described as pasture sound. That pasture, at least for the time being, will be at River Edge Farm in the Santa Ynez Valley, where farm manager Russell Drake will provide The Tin Man with a home for as long as he wants.
"He'll need a little time to be let down and get used to living in a pasture," Mandella added. "If I know him, he will try to run off."
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