ARCADIA, Calif. — He had been at the track since 4:30 a.m., starting his rounds in the dark, letting the snorts and shuffles of racehorses clear the sleep out of his eyes. The backside before dawn is more than Dr. Ryan Carpenter’s office, it is one of his favorite places, especially on mornings of big races like this day.
He had checked on four dozen thoroughbreds and there were no surgeries to perform that afternoon. So he sat beneath a TV in a barn to watch the one horse he couldn’t get his mind off: Mastery, the undefeated colt, ambling toward the starting gate here at Santa Anita Park for the San Felipe Stakes.