by Ellen Harvey, Harness Racing Communications

Freehold, NJ — Trainer Kevin Lare might have expected to spend more time this year in the winner’s circle with Snow White than visiting vets.

The 2007 Dan Patch winner for 2-year-old trotting fillies first hit a snag over the winter when she needed surgery for a breathing problem. But when Snow White came back to the races in June, it was breaks, not breathing, that was her undoing, as she made breaks in both the Hambletonian Oaks eliminations (July 26) and Coaching Club Oaks (June 27).

The break in the Coaching Club was the start of a long odyssey for Lare and Snow White.

Lisa Photo

Snow White rolled to a 1:53.2 score in last Friday’s Duenna Trot at The Meadowlands.

“Dr. Michael Ross (of the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center), starting in February, did her throat surgery. If it wasn’t for him, we might not be racing anyway,” says Lare. “He was the one I called in an emergency after she ran that week (in the Coaching Club Oaks at The Meadowlands in June) and was lame. We were trying to find out where she was lame. She had some minor issues, but she was basically racehorse sound. He looked at her, did some work, that was a Tuesday.

“On Wednesday I had her shipped up to Dr. Ray Derman, who is a chiropractor. To me as a horse trainer, it was like throwing darts. I’ve never been a believer in chiropractic for a horse, never. I am now. I was throwing darts. I couldn’t leave any stone unturned. I had to do everything and anything. Basically the only thing I wasn’t doing was calling the horse psychic,” he laughed.

“The only thing we knew is that it was lameness on the right side. We took her to Dr. Derman and he said her pelvis was very off center and her stifle (a joint below the hip in the hind legs) was off. They had to realign the stifle also.

“We raced that week and we won (in the Miller elims on July 4, by 3-1/2 lengths in 1:54). (After the race) John (driver Campbell) said, ‘It’s a whole lot better, but not perfect.’ We went back home. We’d already done everything we could do for her joints, so I thought I could go back to the chiropractor again. So we went back to Dr. Derman again. He said she was a lot better, maybe 70 or 80 percent better than she was the first week. She was back out of line a little bit, not bad, just a little, but he kind of blamed that on the need to stay on top of it. To this day I’m thinking I’m going to keep on doing it.

“We went back and won the Miller (on July 11, by 1-3/4 lengths in 1:54). (After the race) John (Campbell) said, ‘Very good, not super. Not the Snow White we knew last year.’

“From there, we’d already made an appointment with Dr. Ross at New Bolton before she raced in the Miller Final. We were going there to get bone scans, X rays, everything you can possibly think of to try to pinpoint exactly what this was. What Dr. Ross diagnosed as far as lameness came up on the bone scan. This is before the Oaks elim. He did some work on her again and figured, ‘Hey, let’s go back to the races.’

“We went on to the Hambletonian Oaks, but what didn’t I mention? We didn’t go back to the chiropractor. I didn’t think she needed it, she’d been a couple times, she was 80 percent better the first time, so we didn’t go back. After running in the Hambletonian Oaks, John said, ‘Kevin, worse than ever. Terrible.’

“I thought ‘Okaaaay, now where are we?’ Take her back home? I knew she was not that lame, I watched her jog and she’s not that lame. So I’m talking to Steve Elliott (trainer of 2007 Hambletonian winner Donato Hanover) in the paddock the next day, I tell Steve my issues, we’re talking about her and he made the recommendation of Dr. (James) Mitchell. He said, ‘Kevin if you want someone who’s very good with lameness and chiropractic, give Dr. Mitchell a chance.’

“I had to bring another horse to Gaitway Farm (in N.J.) that day anyway, so it made it convenient. I threw Snow White on the trailer and we went. He told me, “Wow, this horse is in terrible shape, her pelvis is out of whack. (I thought) You’ve got be kidding me? He didn’t know what Dr. Derman had said. He worked on her on a Monday (July 28) and I said, ‘When will I know she’s better? I can race her on Friday (August 1 in the Duenna Trot at The Meadowlands) for $30,000. The only way I’ll know if she’s better is to race her.’ He said, ‘Kevin, you can train her tomorrow if you want, she’s going to be as good tomorrow as she’s going to be on Friday.’ I said, ‘OK.’

“So I left her there with her groom, Deshawn Sample, and I told them I’d see them the next morning at 8:00 a.m. I trained her at Gaitway Farm a mile in 1:53.2. I thought, ‘OK, I’ll drop her in to go.’ John came in off the race bike the other night (after winning the Duenna by 3-1/2 lengths in 1:53.2) and said she’d never been better since a 2-year-old. She’s probably going to end up doing quite a bit of chiropractic work.”

Hindsight being 20/20, Lare has a theory about what might have caused Snow White’s problems.

“Since she was a 2-year-old, she’d bite the bottom two or three boards in her stall and slam herself into it on her right side,” he says. “It was her way of playing. If someone came up to her stall, she’s not all that human-friendly and instead of coming to the front of the stall, she’d bite at the boards and throw herself into the wall. That’s the only thing we can come up with as to what happened to her. In between the second qualifier and the first start she threw herself hard enough that she threw herself out of whack. Somewhere along in there she did it, and once she did it once, it was easily thrown out again and you have to take care of it quite a while to get it back healed.”

Lare has made some changes in her stall to prevent the behavior in the future.

“Needless to say, her stall is now only about six boards high. If she threw herself into it, she’d go over it. She doesn’t have a wall to slam it into now. It’s probably three to four feet tall all the way around. She won’t go out of it, she has zero interest in trying to get out. She was her own worst enemy.”

Lare was a bit spooked by watching his trotting star manipulated in her chiropractic sessions.

“It’s a scary thing when you’ve got a horse named Snow White that they’re doing it to. If it was a 20 claimer, 50 claimer, even 100 claimer, you wouldn’t think as much about it. When you’re standing there watching someone literally cracking their back, picking up their legs, snapping their stifle and hocks, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, no, you’ve got to be kidding me.’”

Lare says Snow White takes the sessions better than he does.

“She loves it. Absolutely enjoys it. Anything you have to do to her, she’ll let you. Do the magnetic blanket, the mask on her face, does it all, she never moves. She knows you’re trying to help her.”

The Colonial Trot (on August 17 for $500,000) is next up for Snow White, says Lare.

“She’s going to face the boys at Chester. We’re getting brave now. That’s her next stop and I don’t know if she’s got enough to go in the first division or the second (there are multiple divisions seeded by earnings, with the highest purse for highest money earners going for $500,000). She’ll be getting some sort of chiropractic and we’ll be in touch with Dr. Ross all the time, he’s the quarterback.”