Red Mile barns quarantined

JJ's Ironman won the ninth race last Wednesday at The Red Mile, capturing the late-closing event in a career-best time for driver Eric Ledford, trainer Seldon Ledford and owners James Jesk and Ledford Racing, but 48 hours later, preliminary Coggins testing on the 3-year-old colt came up positive. Those results have prompted the closing of several barns at the Lexington track.



"We are waiting for some definitive test results this afternoon or later this evening. We've done some diagnostic testing but we haven't done anything yet to give us the ability to make an interpretation or diagnosis," Rusty Ford, equine programs manager for the Kentucky State Veterinarian's Office, told The Horseman Tuesday morning, Oct. 11.



According to Red Mile race secretary Nick Salvi, JJ's Ironman arrived at the track late last month with a negative Coggins test taken April 8, 2004, but blood was taken after the Oct. 6 win because the horse needed another test before traveling to Canada for the Breeders Crown. Because of the situation, barns near Ledford's that housed horses trained by Joe Seekman, Travis Alexander, Charlie Norris, Dick Richardson, Steve Waller, Dick Macomber and Jack Baggitt Jr. have been closed down and the horses forced to remain on the grounds.



"We've gone into The Red Mile, looked at where the equine population was stabled there, and determined which horses had the possibility of repeated exposure to (JJ's Ironman)," said Ford. "Dr. (Robert) Stout has in fact looked at those horses, and got movement stopped on the horses that had the greatest possibility of exposure."



The situation has apparently cost several horses the chance to start in the Breeders Crowns at Woodbine. Included among that group is the Seekman-trained 3-year-old filly pacer Kikikatie and colt pacer Crombes Last Laugh; the Norris-trained 3-year-old colt trotter Castle Of Fortune; the Alexander-trained 3-year-old filly pacer Ice Sculpture; the Macomber-trained 3-year-old filly pacer So Artsi; and the Baggitt-trained 3-year-old gelding trotter Uncle Vernon.



"You have to be disappointed when you have two ready to go. It's a killer," Seekman told The Horseman Tuesday morning from his farm in western Michigan. Seekman said he has been told the quarantine period for his horses can be anywhere from 14 to 45 days if JJ's Ironman is determined positive, but they can continue to be jogged and trained. Seekman said assistant Nick Giberson remained in Lexington with the horses but that if the quarantine period turns out to be lengthy, then he or assistant Jeff Seekman would return.



As for JJ's Ironman's future if he is determined positive, Ford said it wasn't mandated that the horse be euthanized, saying, "There are provisions that would permit a positive horse to be quarantined so long as it could be done in a manner that it doesn't endanger the domestic population in the area."

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