Michael Spirito

They pride themselves on their professionalism and were duly mortified when a yearling colt by Tapizar somehow ended up with a nail in a hoof. Worse still, shortly afterwards his full sister--sold at Keeneland the previous September for $100,000--made a winning debut at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The mare was coming good. So Brendan and Oliver Gallagher sent him in to Hagyard, to have the foot cleaned and disinfected. Back then, in 2017, they didn't know Michael Spirito as well as they do now ("a god of a surgeon"); but nor did...