By MIKE DILLON
Worrying about kids, the rent, the mortgage and the bank manager can give humans ulcers and high blood pressure.
But what gives racehorses ulcers?
No one really knows except some have a greater tolerance to the stress of training and racing than others, but it's estimated 70 per cent of all horses who race get stomach ulcers.
Lord Penn, down to run in the Twomey Construction Hurdles at Pukekohe today, is currently recovering from some pesky throat ulcers.
The chance is he has also had them in his stomach, but we have a problem in New Zealand - there is no way of diagnosing them.
Auckland equine veterinarian Andrew Grierson: "The only way to detect stomach ulcers in horses is to scope for them. You need a three metre endoscope and there isn't one in the country - at least there wasn't earlier this year."
The problem is cost, a notoriously fragile3m endoscope costs $28,000.
"They only have to strike a rough path in their use and they twist, bend and break," says Grierson.
No one could understand how even the genius of Bart Cummings could transform former moderate Western Australian performer Rogan Josh into a Melbourne Cup winner 18 months ago, after failing to look anything like that classy in other stables.
"We found he had stomach ulcers and he tore ahead when we fixed them up," said Cummings. "It's a very common thing."
In February a Sydney-based drug company bought a sample 3m endoscope to New Zealand and Grierson rounded up some horses from the Takanini training centre he suspected may have had ulcers.
"We found ulcers in every one of them."
The suspicious signs could be symptoms of other ailments - grumpy disposition, fragile diet and weight loss.
"They become picky eaters because they get sore in the gut when they eat."
Grierson says when racehorses start to lose appetite trainers often make the mistake of eliminating hay and grass from their diet when, in fact, they are the two ingredients which will help a horse with ulcers.
"It's the hard feed which does not react well with the stomach acid. The alkalinity of the grass and hay balances out the acids."
Lord Penn's trainer Davina Waddell was alerted to her horse's problem after he failed badly at Ellerslie last start when expected to go close to winning.
"He went so badly and I thought back to his last start, which was over hurdles and his rider Finbarr Leahy says he was making a noise in the closing stages of the race.
"We thought he might have been starting to go in the wind so we had his lungs scoped and that's when the vet noticed the throat ulcers.
"He said he hadn't seen anything like it.
"The horse is so well we didn't want to hit him with antibiotics, so we've been treating him with natural products.
"His work for this race has been exceptional, but then so was his work before he failed at Ellerslie."
Grierson said the best products now for horse ulcers restrict the flow of acid into the stomach.
He understands Massey University's equine unit has been looking at buying a 3m endoscope.
The ulcers are the reason Lord Penn is racing today instead of in a more ambitious campaign at the Wellington winter meeting, which opens on Saturday.
"After his problems I thought we'd take the easier option," said Waddell.
Racing: Horses showing the pressures of modern life
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