Tyler's Tribe Headed to Arkansas After Bleeding at BC

The speedy Iowa sprinter Tyler's Tribe , vanned off the Keeneland grass course after suffering exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage during the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T) Nov. 4, has bounced back quickly and will get a short freshening before pointing to Oaklawn Park's series of 3-year-old stakes.

"He's real good," trainer Tim Martin said Nov. 6. "He ate that night. The vet treated him with antibiotics. He's on a van to Arkansas."

The colt raced Friday without the diuretic Lasix. The medication, used by horsemen to prevent respiratory bleeding, is permitted for race day use in Iowa, but Kentucky is among a group of states that do not allow it for stakes races and races for 2-year-olds. The two-day Breeders' Cup is run without race-day medication.

Messier , a Bob Baffert-trained 3-year-old racing in an allowance optional claimer Nov. 5 at Keeneland, also bled from the lungs when racing without Lasix on the second Breeders' Cup day.

Martin, who owns Tyler's Tribe with Thomas Lepic, had no prior indication that Tyler's Tribe might bleed. The Iowa-bred by Sharp Azteca   raced with Lasix in his first five starts, all wins, but never trained on it. "Just for races, because we can," Martin said.

In the Juvenile Turf Sprint, Tyler's Tribe made the lead at the half-mile pole before dropping back quickly around the turn. Jockey Kylee Jordan pulled him up in the stretch, and Tyler's Tribe left in the horse ambulance.

"It was a big shock," Martin said. "I don't know if he got stressed or what happened. He was a little hot before the gate, which has never happened before. He's always calm and happy. He washed out, and I don't know what that was about. That bothered me. He started making the lead without asking, and then just falls apart. It was a letdown but he's going to recover."

Tyler's Tribe will get two to three weeks off at Martin's farm in Royal, Ark., before preparing for the $250,000 Smarty Jones Stakes at one mile on New Year's Day. As a "Road to the Kentucky Derby" points race, the Smarty Jones will be run Lasix-free.

At this point, Martin is cautiously optimistic that he can manage Tyler's Tribe's bleeding through a variety of preventative measures. Because there was no history of EIPH prior to the Juvenile Turf Sprint, the trainer thinks there is a good chance that stress was the main cause of the bleeding.

"I think when he gets back on the dirt he'll be OK," Martin said. "Sometimes when they get nervous they bleed on you. We scoped him, and he did bleed out of both nostrils, but it might have had to do with other things.

"They've got stuff that's pretty good out there for preventative treatment and daily maintenance. We did a little preventative 24 hours out, but I told the vet he's not a bleeder, so there's more we can do. The moment he stepped on that turf he started washing out. He's a very smart horse, never nervous, and I don't think he wanted to run on it."

Martin suspected all along that Tyler's Tribe would not be as effective on the turf but concluded the Juvenile Turf Sprint was still a better spot than the Juvenile. While some assumed it was because of distance limitations, Martin says his horse's speed will be even more dangerous around two turns. The connections felt he wasn't fit enough at this stage to try it over Keeneland's deep surface against the best in the country.