Group 1-winning Hunter Valley stallion Castelvecchio is recovering from life-saving surgery after having a 2.2-kilogram mass removed from his bowel, a condition rarely seen in thoroughbred horses in rural Australia.
The Arrowfield-based stallion - the sire of first crop three-year-old Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes winner El Castello and dual Group 3-winning filly and Thousand Guineas runner-up Aeliana - was diagnosed with a condition known as an enterolith after initially presenting with colic-like symptoms early last week.
The stone-like mass in Castelvecchio’s colon, which could have been building up over a number of years, was 44 centimetres in circumference and 17 centimetres in diameter which had effectively obstructed his colon, leading to the discomfort suffered by the eight-year-old stallion.
Arrowfield Stud’s resident veterinarian Dr Wendy Perriam said it was evident that after Castelvecchio had been treated for colic that something else was bothering him when the symptoms persisted.
“They're quite common in certain parts of the world, mostly coastal, sandy soils, places like California and Florida (in the United States), as an example, but they're not common in the Hunter Valley at all. In fact, they're very, very, very rare up this way,” Dr Perriam told The Straight.
“We found the enterolith in a part of his large colon where the colon goes from being quite large in diameter down to quite a smaller diameter.
“It could no longer continue to advance along the gastrointestinal tract, so it stopped and basically caused the blockage.”
Dr Perriam said Castelvecchio would have likely ingested a small foreign object, such as a hair or a small pebble, which has caused him to develop the enterolith.
“What typically seems to occur with them is … the body lays down some mineral around (the foreign object), and then the mineral just keeps on laying down progressively over time until it produces a large, smooth, stone-like structure,” said Dr Perriam, who praised the veterinary surgeons at the Scone Equine Hospital for their assistance.
“When they're small, the horse can pass them quite readily, but when they get to the size of his, he clearly can't let it pass.”
Castelvecchio underwent protracted surgery lasting three hours at Scone Equine Hospital on Wednesday to remove the blockage and he has since been discharged from the veterinary clinic to continue his recovery at Arrowfield Stud.
He has been taken out of service for the remainder of the 2024 breeding season but he is expected to make a full recovery.
“If we had not taken him to surgery when we did, there was always a chance that where the stone is lodged, the gut wall, the bowel wall, becomes too inflamed. We call it friable,” Dr Perriam said.
“I'm sure that's a term most people can associate with. The gut wall can become sufficiently damaged that it is no longer healthy and viable. Therefore, the outcome can be really, really very poor.
“We're extremely lucky that he went to surgery when he did and the result has been excellent.”
Trained by Richard Litt for owners Ottavio and Wendy Galletta, the Arrowfield Stud-bred and sold Castelvecchio won an Inglis Millennium, as well as the Group 1 ATC Champagne Stakes at two and a Rosehill Guineas at three.
He also finished runner-up to top-class Japanese mare Lys Gracieux in the 2019 Cox Plate during his 13-start race career in just two seasons of racing before he was retired to join the roster at Arrowfield Stud alongside his sire Dundeel.
“We're extremely lucky that he went to surgery when he did and the result has been excellent.” - Wendy Perriam
Castelvecchio, who was standing his fifth season at stud this year at a fee of $22,000 (inc GST), has sired 12 individual winners to date, including the Anthony Cummings-trained El Castello, Chris Waller’s Aeliana and the Lindsay Park-prepared Group 2 Moonee Valley Fillies Classic winner Double Market.
The Phillip Stokes-trained three-year-old filly Comanche Miss, who is owned by Arrowfield Stud, was also stakes-placed in the Listed Exford Plate this spring.
