Trainer suing vet for £350,000 after death of horse as High Court case begins

A vet was negligent when failing to administer antibiotics to a horse who was displaying "crippling lameness" from an infection that would claim his life a week later, a court heard on Monday.

Trainer Peter Crate, via his company J&J Franks Limited, is suing Shotter & Byers Equine Veterinary Practice for £350,000 claiming negligent treatment of his horse Sand Diego, who died on February 28, 2020.

On the first day of the hearing, lawyers for the defence conceded that the actions of vet Dr Barbara Portal, who first visited Sand Diego at Crate's stable on February 21, 2020, had been negligent in not giving the horse antibiotics the next day having received the results from blood tests taken the previous day. However, the defence is set to argue that due to the nature of the infection and the antimicrobial resistance it showed when later cultured in a laboratory, Sand Diego would have died anyway.

Crate, managing director of Reigate quarry and waste management firm J&J Franks, said on Monday he believed Sand Diego was destined to be "a superstar as far as I was concerned" after winning his fourth race as a two-year-old in September 2019, a 5f maiden at Sandown.

The trainer, who said he probably had three or four horses in his care when Sand Diego was racing and has since reduced that number to two, told the court he received several phone calls the day after the Sandown win from people offering to buy the horse but had "hoped to have kept him for many years and would have had no intention to sell him".

But he said Sand Diego’s death had changed his position over future offers for his horses. “I would have to approach it commercially," he said. "I’m not in this to sell horses but I think it’s the right route from now on."

Sandown: where Sand Diego won in 2019Credit: Mark Cranham

Crate, whose testimony was briefly interrupted by a member of the public fainting, said he had first become concerned about a swelling in the off-hind hock of Sand Diego, also referred to during the hearing by his stable name of 'Trump', on the evening of Friday, February 21 and contacted the vets. 

By the time Portal arrived to examine the Starspangledbanner three-year-old, Crate said the horse was displaying "crippling lameness . . . he was functioning on three legs. He was toe touching on one but that was all the weight he could put on it when he was walked".

After blood test results ruled out the horse being "tied up" – a condition similar to cramp – Crate said the vet told him the most likely cause of the swelling was "muscular or that he had got cast and suffered a blunt trauma".

"'Let's see how it goes' was her approach," Crate added.

With the swelling having progressed further by the following morning, Portal heavily bandaged the affected leg. It was only on the evening of the next day, Sunday, February 23, that the bacterial infection cellulitis, which affects the lower tissue of the skin, was mentioned as a potential cause of the significant swelling. The bandage was removed and Sand Diego was treated with antibiotics for the first time. 

Appearing as an expert witness for the claimant, Dr Piet Ramzan, clinical director of Rossdales veterinary practice in Newmarket, was critical of the decision to bandage the affected leg, stating he would have treated the horse with antibiotics on the Saturday morning.

"To put a constrictive bandage on something that is blowing up is a dangerous thing to do," he said.

Five days have been set aside at the High Court in London for the hearing, which continues on Tuesday.

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