Condylar Fractures Discussed in OwnerView Webinar

The final installment in the 2024 OwnerView webinar series was held on December 10 and covered condylar fractures, a common injury in racehorses.

The conference is hosted by The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and presented by Bessemer Trust, Stoll Keenon Ogden, and The Green Group. The panel was sponsored by Daily Racing Form.

A Q&A was sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, and attendees were able to ask questions through a Q&A link, which were answered at the end of the webinar. 

Gary Falter, project manager for OwnerView, moderated the panel with guest Dr. Alan Ruggles, a partner at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital who specializes in orthopedic surgery and lameness.

The webinar began with Dr. Ruggles sharing a PowerPoint presentation covering condylar fractures and how they are treated with surgery. He also discussed bone bruising and the advantages of different diagnostic tools, including X-ray, scintigraphy, CAT scan, and MRI. 

When looking at an image of a horse with a lateral condylar fracture, Falter asked if horses that suffer from this fracture can return to the track. Ruggles replied, "Yes, a horse like this, they're going to have about an 80%, 75 to 80% chance, to return to training after repair."

In reference to bone bruising, Dr. Ruggles said, "At certain points, sometimes the bone just shuts down, and we accumulate microdamage in the bone and this is really a precursor to fracture. The vast majority of horses that undergo maladaptive stress remodeling, meaning they're not able to overcome it during some point in their training, don't fracture. But almost all horses with condylar fracture have some degree of non-adaptive stress remodeling, at least in their history."

The presentation was followed by a video showing Dr. Ruggles performing surgery on a condylar fracture. After the video, Dr. Ruggles explained that horses usually recover within an hour of the surgery and are typically no longer lame, but they need at least 12 to 16 weeks off training.

The replay of Tuesday's Thoroughbred Owner Conference panel is available online.

The 2025 Thoroughbred Owner Conference virtual panel schedule will be released in the coming weeks.

For more information about the owner conference series, please visit ownerview.com/event/conference or contact Gary Falter at 859.224.2803 or gfalter@jockeyclub.com.