Derby Blogs

As a horseplayer, I rarely think about the daily routine of elite Thoroughbreds and the care and conditioning they receive so they peak on big race days.

Yesterday, I went back to trainer Doug O’Neil’s barn to watch something unique and impressive. There, I met Reo King, whose title is “Equine Therapist.” Working exclusively for O'Neill, Reo’s duties include stretching and massaging O’Neil’s elite horses, including Oaks contender Mistical Plan and Derby contenders Great Hunter and Liquidity.

Thoroughbreds, like human athletes, get muscle tightness and soreness, King explained. He conditions them for muscle elasticity, getting them “soft and relaxed."

I watched King stretch Liquidity’s neck, shoulders and front legs. I could hear Liquidity’s neck crack as King turned it to the side. Liquidity has been through these routines so many times that he lifts his legs in anticipation of King’s pressure. I’ve never seen a horse bend and contort in this way.

“They're all a little different. Some of them don’t know what’s going on at first. So after I do it a couple of times they’re soft and relaxed and once they know I’m helping them,” King says. “If we can get a little more elasticity in them and he can get this much more stride with a little more efficiently that’s going to add up in the Derby.”

Next, using a vibrating machine called a “Thumper,” King massages the entire body Mistical Plan. She appears to be in equine heaven.

King said all O’Neil’s horses are coming into their races in peak condition. Liquidity will be a huge longshot, but King says the colt has been flourishing in recent weeks since the Santa Anita Derby and expects a big race. Great Hunter, he said, has never been better, his muscles ripped and tight and his coat shiny.

King, a Canadian, has been doing this for 15 years. He worked worked for California-based trainer Jeff Mullins before hooking up with O’Neill. He has spent a lot of time with Lava Man, a reformed claimer who’s become one of the top older handicap horses in the nation.

“You want to have that elasticity in the muscle, a little bit of flexibility and no soreness,” King says. “They’re in the stalls all day, so it’s good for them and it gets the blood flowing.”

Watch Liquidity and Mistical Plan get stretched. Be sure to check out video footage to the right with Jessica Pacheco.