Three Jewels Update

Three Jewels has been back in light training at Wavertree in Ocala, Florida for about a month now after his time off this winter from bone bruising; his second setback in the past year.

The good news is that Three Jewels has continued to build fitness through his gallops with no physical setbacks; for now, and those are the key words and concern. As we’ve experienced in the past with Three Jewels, he’s the type of horse that carries more weight than normal and gets very aggressive in his training, two things that put him at greater risk of injury and recurrence. Unfortunately, we’ve seen this come to fruition twice already, first with having to remove bone chips from both front ankles last summer and then again late last fall with bone bruising.

As Three Jewels gets more and more into his training each week, we’re still seeing the same pattern now as we did last year of carrying significant weight and being a bit too hard on himself in training, both fueled by likely excessive testosterone. The concern Ciaran, our team, and partners at Dixiana Farm is that if we continue going down the road that has already put Three Jewels on the sidelines twice, that there’s very little doubt we’ll end right back with another setback/injury and time off. Our goal is to make every effort to see if we can get Three Jewels to the races and that is becoming increasingly difficult without making a significant change. Our best path forward and most optimal decision to give him the best chance at becoming a racehorse is to geld him.

While a procedure such as gelding is never taken lightly, this type of situation is one of the primary reasons that owners decide to move forward with gelding. The change significantly reduces testosterone levels which helps control and lower weight and also generally makes for a calmer individual that is more likely to focus on his job on the racetrack. As you’ll hear in the video above with MRH resident vet Dr. Jeffrey Berk, unless a horse has demonstrated superior athletic performance in races (generally at the Grade 1 level) their demand as a stallion prospect is practically zero. Keep in mind that less than 1 percent of all colts ever become a desirable stallion prospect.

While everyone’s desire is to keep that small possibility open as long as possible, the reality is that we’re dealing with a horse who sustained multiple injuries over the last year before even getting to sustained periods of intense and long speed drills. The question quite frankly becomes can this horse go 4-6 furlongs to get race fit (over a period of several months) if he’s already showing indicators that have plagued him in the past? The team, Ciaran (who you’ll hear in the video above), and Dixiana all agreed that keeping him sound at this point is highly unlikely without getting him into the best physical and mental state possible, which requires gelding.

For reference, the MRH stable had another situation like Three Jewels occur a few years ago with current runner Deep Cover. The son of Mission Impazible, now a two-time winner on the NY circuit, was a talented two-year-old in training purchase that carried a lot of weight and wanted to really take off on the track early on in his career. After a number of setbacks including a tibia fracture, MRH and then partners Twin Creeks Racing opted to geld Deep Cover. Now a five-year-old, Deep Cover made 7 starts at the races in 2022 and is being primed for this years campaign.

While most horses get back into a regular routine fairly soon after gelding, we’ll follow up at the end of the week with Ciaran to see how Three Jewels is doing and report back.