Lost in the Fog and Knights Templar . . . .linked?????

[Tairaterces]

From DRF.COM of this morning, 09/21/06:

TWO DEATHS WITH UNCLEAR LINK

By JAY HOVDEY
The odds that two Thoroughbreds from opposite sides of the continent could spend less than a week stabled next to each other in unfamiliar surroundings and then be killed by the same rare equine disease less than one year later are staggering. Absolutely staggering.
Take the bet.

Lost in the Fog and Knights Templar, both born and raised in Florida, were housed in the same out-of-the-way corner of Barn 11 on the Belmont Park backstretch in the days leading up to the 2005 Breeders' Cup World Championships. Lost in the Fog was taking his sterling 10-0 record into the Breeders' Cup Sprint as a heavy favorite, while Knights Templar was going into the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies off a 13 1/4-length romp in the Mazarine Stakes at Woodbine.

They both lost their races, but that did not stop their admirers from stepping up at the polls. Lost in the Fog won the Eclipse Award as North America's best sprinter, and in Canada, Knights Templar was hailed with a Sovereign Award as champion 2-year-old filly. The future looked bright.

"We had some incredible offers for her going into the Breeders' Cup," said Danny Vella, a two-time Sovereign Award winner as Canada's leading trainer, who owned Knights Templar in a partnership group called Clover IV.

"We decided, though, that this was the type of filly we'd wanted all our lives," Vella said. "We loved her, and we wanted to race her and breed her. Who knows? She might have even gone to Lost in the Fog, since he was probably heading to stud in Kentucky."

Such dreams have disappeared now, like tears in rain. Lost in the Fog died last Sunday in his stall at the Golden Gate Fields stable of trainer Greg Gilchrist. Some six weeks earlier, on July 27, Knights Templar took her last breath at Woodlands Farm, in Hillsburgh, Ontario, about a 45-minute drive from Vella's stable at Woodbine. Both young horses shared the same grim fate, wracked with lymphatic cancer and mercifully euthanized to prevent further suffering.

It was in early May, not long after she finished second in the Star Shoot Stakes at Woodbine, that Knights Templar started showing symptoms of a virus that never seemed to let go.

"We biopsied a lot of her lymph nodes when it started to get really bad, and it was a 100 percent diagnosis," Vella said. "Steroids kept her comfortable for a period of time. But she more or less wilted away and got to a point where she was so weak we had to put her down. We had talked about chemo and all that, but for me, it was pretty tough. I'd just gone through it all with my wife before losing her last year to cancer."

Danny and Theresa Vella had been married 28 years.

"You see it happen with a person, and they can make their own decisions," Vella said. "But with a horse, you like to have a little more common sense, especially when there's really nothing you can do. I went out to Woodlands to see her fairly often. The visits were hard. But in your heart, you knew you had to do it. Being a true champion, she was happy to the end."

Knights Templar was immediately cremated. Lost in the Fog, however, underwent an autopsy on Monday at the University of California at Davis, where his malignancies were first discovered in mid-August.

"The vet said, 'Greg, you have no idea how tough this horse was,' " Gilchrist reported Tuesday evening. "Not only would a normal horse have been dead two or three months ago, it was amazing this horse kept his presence, kept eating and drinking. One of the tumors was the whole length of his back, and was starting to wind itself around his spine."

Vella contacted Gilchrist during Lost in the Fog's ordeal, if only to share what Knights Templar had been through. The idea that a horse could "catch" cancer was pretty far-fetched.

"I'm doing a bit of research into it with some veterinarians that specialize in internal medicine," Vella said. "So far, all I've heard is that there's never been any research done on that type of thing with horses. But with people and with cats I'm told there is some association with a type of virus.

"Certainly, you'd at least like to find out if there is a chance of that to prevent it from happening," Vella added. "Yet it's so impossible to prove. You'd be sticking your head out ready to get it chopped off if you tried to say there was something. But just consider the odds - two horses, side-by-side, isolated by themselves in that little section of the barn, getting that type of a disease."

The ashes of Knights Templar will be buried in Paris, Ky., at Hidden Creek Farm, owned by Vella and his partners. Lost in the Fog's remains are heading to Florida, to be placed beneath a special tree at the Southern Chase Farm of Greg and Karen Dodd, where the colt went through his early lessons.

And for those who like their stories tied in a neat, melancholy bow, Southern Chase is located in the town of Williston, just a short hop from the town of Orange Lake and Brylynn Farm - the same Brylynn Farm where Knights Templar was foaled.

[summerhorse]

It is weird but probably just a coincidence. I think probably more horses get it and go undiagnosed because their owners can't afford surgery or biopsies or such. They just get put down to unspecified colic or even die of something else. Some of the tumors of this type discovered in horses were found only on necropsy after the horse died from something else. And since necropsies are relatively rare I suspect that the incidence is much higher than reported.

[darkmoonlady]

It’s interesting to note however coincidental it might seem that there is a known viral cancer among canines. I just read an article not that long ago, that if I can find I will post here of a cancer found in dogs that is spread by a virus. Also the human pappilloma (sp?) virus does and can cause cervical cancer, so clear cut that a vaccine is used to prevent it. It would be interesting to study both cases, but sadly with Knights Templar being cremated that would be impossible. Canine and equine diseases have been known to cross the species barrier. There is some speculation that many greyhounds in the early nineties were infected with a flu virus transmitted POSSIBLY from being fed horsemeat. There hasn't been conclusive proof of such but the outbreaks seemed to abate when the dog trainers switched back to beef. Either way it was very sad that two magnificent horses died of such horrible cancer.

[casallc]

The type of tumors that LITF had is common in gray horses. Neither LITF nor Knights Templar were gray; however both the sire and dam of LITF were gray. It makes me curious whether the cancer causing gene in grays goes on to the offspring, gray or not, or does it stop like the gray color in other than gray offspring.
Back in the fifties, when I went to horse auctions with my grandfather, I noticed the killer buyers lifting the tails of gray horses before bidding on them. I asked my grandfather what they were doing. He told me they were checking for "cancer warts". Today I know they were looking for melanomas that are present under a gray horses tail that are pre-cancerous signs that hint the animal may be full of tumors. Slaughter houses are reluctant to buy or at least pay market price for a gray.

[Skipitgirl]

Dont know but one of Michael J Foxs first films has 4 crew memebrs who now have Parkinsons beside him.

[llbean]

I think it was just the dam of LITF who is Grey.

Anyway, Casallc, this is the sort of thing I find highly interesting and thanks for sharing that info.

If LITF's grey dam had a role in his cancer i'd think it'd be a gene(s) next to the grey gene that increases the risk (in other words a gene normally inherited with the grey gene but perhaps not in the case of LITF).

Do the slaughter buyers ever show evidence of caring about whether a horse had a grey parent or not when said horse is not grey himself? (It's well within probability that they could've missed a increased risk so I'm not saying it would prove anything if they don't care.)

-llbean

[llbean]

Dont know but one of Michael J Foxs first films has 4 crew memebrs who now have Parkinsons beside him.

Which film was it?

-llbean

[tbrace]

Tesio was right! Grey is a disease?

[Heidilady]

This makes me think of feline leukemia.

[sunday_silence]

The type of tumors that LITF had is common in gray horses. Neither LITF nor Knights Templar were gray; however both the sire and dam of LITF were gray. It makes me curious whether the cancer causing gene in grays goes on to the offspring, gray or not, or does it stop like the gray color in other than gray offspring.

I've seen Lost Soldier with my own 2 eyes and he's bay as can be. I saw Cloud Break, too, and she is grey. Not a particularly attractive mare, either.

[Skipitgirl]

I cant remeber the film name. It was filmed in Canada and he was in his early teens. They talked about it on Entertainment tonight a few years ago. I just found the coincidence very interesting.

[xfactor fan]

It might be worth checking the health of other horses that were in the same barn at Belmont while Lost in the Fog, and Knights Templar.

And Parkinsons is known to occur in clusters.

[Arctic Cielo]

I was pretty sure it was off the set of Family Ties. I heard that one too. Very strange.

[summerhorse]

The type of tumors that LITF had is common in gray horses. Neither LITF nor Knights Templar were gray; however both the sire and dam of LITF were gray. It makes me curious whether the cancer causing gene in grays goes on to the offspring, gray or not, or does it stop like the gray color in other than gray offspring.
Back in the fifties, when I went to horse auctions with my grandfather, I noticed the killer buyers lifting the tails of gray horses before bidding on them. I asked my grandfather what they were doing. He told me they were checking for "cancer warts". Today I know they were looking for melanomas that are present under a gray horses tail that are pre-cancerous signs that hint the animal may be full of tumors. Slaughter houses are reluctant to buy or at least pay market price for a gray.

Greys get melanomas which are the result of melanin being removed from the hair shaft/follicle and deposited elsewhere. The tumors are accumulation of melanin. Luckily they are not painful until they start to ulcerate from friction, block orifices, or grow internally (the worst) and press on or shut down vital organs/tissues. All greys will get melanomas if they live long enough, breeds that historically are chosen for grey (Lippys, Arabs) have a higher resistance to melanoma and often live to their 20s/30s without being bothered much by them. Of course many of these breeds end up with them quite young too.

LITF and KT had lymphoma which is a different form of cancer. In horses very poor prognosis as usually it is discovered when it is well advanced. It also tends to strike younger horses (starting around 4 years and up) whle melanomas are found more on older horses. It would be nice if they would study it and see if there are viral links or not. (there are several different kinds of lymphoma).

[madelyn]

There is no doubt that a lot, if not most, of the cancers out there are environmentally caused or triggered.

I had a cousin (more like a brother) that was my fishin' and snail huntin' buddy during summers on the Maine shore.. anyhow he spent most of his adult life in Alaska doing things he loved.. and got a job on the pipeline. He was in charge of a crew that cleaned storage tanks at Valdiz.. and he came down with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He had not been doing the job long.. and the petroleum co. already knew it was an "environmental cancer" and unquestioningly picked up the tab for all of his stuff, including shipping him to his family in Boston (better cancer hospitals there) etc. etc. But all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Peter together again, and sadly he died.

It may not be that cancer, itself, would be genetically transmitted, but the SUSCEPTIBILITY could be.