The Tin Man suffers career-ending injury

The Tin Man will have to display the same grit in the healing shed as he did on the racetrack (Benoit Photo) Multiple Grade 1 veteran THE TIN MAN (Affirmed) has been retired after fracturing his right knee, trainer Richard Mandella announced. The dark bay gelding was undergoing surgery to examine his left front ankle, which lit up when he underwent a routine nuclear bone scan on October 25 at Santa Anita, but had difficulty coming out of the anesthesia. “There wasn’t much in there — it was even cleaner than we thought it would be,” Mandella told The Blood-Horse. “But he had a very difficult time coming out of the surgery and broke his knee pretty seriously. Believe me, we wish we had just never done anything.” The Tin Man is occupying a stall at Santa Anita near his conditioner’s office and has been outfitted with a support bandage on his knee. “He’s doing very well. He’s not in much pain,” Mandella said, going on to explain that the injury could be life-threatening if The Tin Man has any complications.

“As we understand, it’s a very difficult place to operate to put a screw. The
difficulty of him even going down (under anesthesia) and trying to get him up
again with losing support in that knee is dangerous. We’re looking into all
things, but right now we’re just keeping him restricted so that he can’t move
around too much. I’m afraid that a bad move could put him in very big jeopardy.
It’s a very touchy situation — we’re all holding our breaths.”

Prior to being injured in the fall of 2004, The Tin Man captured the 2002
Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship S. (G1), the 2002 American H. (G2)
and the 2003 San Luis Obispo H. (G2). After returning to action in late 2005, the
dark bay ran up a four-for-five mark in 2006, garnering the Arlington Million
(G1), San Marcos S. (G2) and additional titles in the Clement L. Hirsch and
American. His only reverse came at Nad al Sheba, where he
was a valiant runner-up to multiple Group 1 hero David Junior in
the Dubai Duty Free (UAE-G1).

The Tin Man continued his winning ways into 2007, taking the Shoemaker
Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) in his seasonal bow, before finishing second in his final
three career starts, the American, Arlington Million and Clement L.
Hirsch.

The hard-knocking nine-year-old retires with a 31-13-8-2 record and
$3,663,780 in lifetime earnings.