Taken from the book Seabiscuit, Three Men and A Racehorse by Laura Hillenbrand...
...The veterinarian examined the leg, then painted it in liniment, packed it in mud, and wrapped it loosely in fresh bandages soaked in ice water. He emerged to the forlorn collection of grooms but offered no verdict. He said the unjury needed time to declare itself. It could be as bad as a broken bone or a blown suspensory ligament. Or it could be as minor as a kick bruise. Whatever it was, the vet thought Smith was wrong. It was in the knee, he said, not the ankle...
The book then goes on to say...
...Smith was right : It was the ankle, not the knee...
...The X rays came back. There was no fracture. The injury was in the suspensory ligament...
Had it been a fracture, then the likelihood is that Seabiscuit would have been put down, but instead (thankfully IMO) it was not and he went on to finally win the hundred-grander at Santa Anita !!
