The Twisting Tale of Suddenbreaknews

Suddenbreakingnews, a Belmont Stakes (gr. I) contender who recently had his sex status changed from gelding to ridgling, might still be considered a gelding had he not contested any of the Triple Crown races.

Because of some lingering inconsistencies in the monitoring of anabolic steroids, the horse who by all outward appearances seems to be a gelding might have kept his status a bit longer in his home state of Oklahoma, until his physiology caught up with the state's testing thresholds. 

The son of Mineshaft  —Uchitel, by Afleet Alex, is at the center of a strange and twisting tale of an assumed gender identity, the true nature of which remained cloaked through the horse's first eight starts, which included three graded stakes. 

"When I first got him, I asked the owner, 'This seems like a pretty nice colt with some talent. Why did you geld him?' " said trainer Donnie Von Hemel, referring to Sonny Henderson, who bought the colt as a yearling. "He said the colt was a ridgling with one (testicle) down and had to be gelded. No one raised any questions until we got to Churchill."

That all changed following the outcome of post-race drug testing for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), in which Suddenbreakingnews finished fifth. Suddenbreakingnews' test results got the attention of state regulators because his anabolic steroid levels didn't square with his reported sex.

"His concentrations for nandolone and testosterone were high for a gelding. The profile was consistent with an intact male," said Dr. Mary Scollay, medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. "The lab questioned whether there was an error recorded for the sex, which launched our investigation."

An ultrasound examination requested by Kentucky stewards revealed that Suddenbreakingnews is a double cryptorchid, which means both testicles never descended from his abdomen as he grew up. 

"The horse appears to be a gelding and apparently he acts like one. There is nothing about him that would make you think otherwise," said Kentucky chief steward Barbara Borden. "And the owner thought he'd been gelded. 

"This is not an uncommon case; we typically see one a year," Borden continued. "We had one this winter at Turfway Park, with a horse listed as a gelding who turned out to be a ridgling. It was similar to this case, but some testicular tissue had been retained in the body."

Suddenbreakingnews had undergone plenty of post-race tests previously. He'd made five starts at Remington Park as a 2-year-old and started in three graded stakes at Oaklawn Park this year between Feb. 15 and April 16, with a win in the Southwest Stakes (gr. III) and a second in the Arkansas Derby (gr. I). 

"After I heard from Donnie, I followed up with our lab, Truesdail, and they did find both testosterone and boldenone in his samples, but they were below the thresholds," said Dr. Joe Lokanc, the track veterinarian during the Oaklawn meet and former chief state veterinarian for Illinois. Arkansas' thresholds for anabolic steroids follow the Association of Racing Commissioners International model rules. They are:

Testosterone—for geldings, 25 picograms/milliliter in plasma or serum or 20 nanograms/milliliter in urine; for fillies and mares, 25 picograms/milliliter in plasma or serum or 55 nanograms/milliliter in urine; no thresholds are set for intact males.

Boldernone—for geldings, fillies, and mares, 25 pg/ml in plasma/serum or 1 ng/ml in urine. For intact males, 25 pg/ml in plasma/serum and 15 ng/ml in urine.

Nandrolone—for geldings, fillies, and mares, the same thresholds as boldernone. Testing for nandrolone in intact males is not recommended in plasma/serum, so just a threshold of 45 ng/ml in urine is used.

These thresholds largely mirror those used in Kentucky and Maryland, with a couple of exceptions. In Kentucky the boldernone threshold in plasma/serum for intact males is higher at 200 pg/ml, and the threshold for nandrolone in geldings, fillies, and mares is also higher, at 50 pg/ml. 

Suddenbreakingnews was born May 2, so he was still an immature male as he was making his first starts at 3 at Oaklawn Park. Because his testicles were so underdeveloped, it would have been logical that he didn't produce enough steroids naturally to alert the testing labs, according to Lokanc.

"Horses are seasonal breeders, so the hormone levels change throughout the year, not as much with stallions— but they change," he said.

Had Suddenbreakingnews skipped the Derby and returned to Oklahoma, however, a post-race test performed even in May might not have triggered an inquiry. Oklahoma currently has one set of anabolic steroid thresholds for all horses that are higher than those used by Arkansas and Kentucky for plasma/serum tests: testosterone, 100 pg/ml; boldenone, 215 pg/ml; nandrolone, 65 pg/ml; and stanozolol, 85 pg/ml. 

Kelly Cathey, executive director of the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission since October, said it is only speculation whether Suddenbreakingnews would have escaped notice as a ridgling under the higher thresholds.

"I don't know what his levels were in Kentucky, but there was nothing abnormal about his thresholds when he was with us," Cathey said. 

In Kentucky, Suddenbreakingnews' test results simply flagged the colt as having exceeded the regulatory thresholds consistent with his reported sex. The additional step of quantifying the amount in his test samples was not needed because the ultrasound examination resolved the issue.

"I think if he had continued to race here, he would have been identified," Cathey said. He also noted the OHRC had assembled an ad hoc committee last year to begin review all its medication thresholds with the RCI's model rules.

"Everything is being reviewed; we have some thresholds that are lower than the RCIs," he said. "The process has been started."

The exact chain of events that led to Suddenbreakingnews becoming listed as a gelding are unclear, shrouded by assumptions and half-remembered conversations about a horse whose appearance, attitude, and obvious lack of visible testicles all contributed to his change in status from ridgling to gelding.

Suddenbreakingnews was announced as a ridgling when he was offered at the 2014 Keeneland September sale where Henderson bought him for $72,000 from Warrendale Sales. 

When the horse left Eisaman Equine near Ocala, Fla., where he was broken and trained, he was still a ridgling. Speculation is that when he got in front of a horse identifier in May 2015 to be tattooed before his first start, his sex was questioned because everything about him indicated he had been gelded.

While cryptorchidism is not uncommon, double cryptorchids such as Suddenbreakingnews are relatively rare, according to several practicing and regulatory equine veterinarians. Also, Henderson, who has owned horses for 50 years, said it would have been typical for him to geld a ridgling because more often than not the condition creates a problem.

Lokanc said he could not remember having previously seen a natural-born double cryptorchid like Suddenbreakingnews. But he has been seeing an overall uptick in cryptorchids at the track. 

"We are actually seeing fewer geldings," he said. "We see more cryptorchids with one descended testicle since we restricted the use of anabolic steroids because you are still having testosterone produced that does have an effect of putting on lean muscle. So unless there is a problem, they leave them as stallions."

Since Suddenbreakingnews' condition doesn't bother him, the plan is to do nothing other than what's necessary to keep him racing fit.

"He is performing well, and they don't seem to be a problem," said Von Hemel. "It would be unnecessary surgery because he is sterile for all intents and purposes. If anything changes in the way he is performing or traveling, maybe, but I don't anticipate anything changing."