Todd Mitchell- take a bow.

Fair dinkum, you've really got to hand it to the guy.
The defence for his latest TCO2 is an absolute think outside of the square bell-ringer in terms of it being inventive. It's so ingenious in fact that IMO it's right up there with Geoff Small's infamous 'the blood is not part of the cardio-vascular system' defence, one which was so brilliant in its simplicity, being based on the wording of the rules here in Australia. In this case, well...rather than spoil it for the avid readers, just go & have a look at the story Barry Lichter (sp?) published this week.

Geez, doesn't everyone feed this way???? Can be fed as a grain replacer I've heard, similar to a meal replacer??ha ha

It wasn't so much the feed aspect that fascinated me Dan.
Rather it was the underlying suggestion that, whilst apparently still allowing the horses to perform quite credibly, the level of respiratory disease they had was such that it retarded the gaseous exchange in their lungs, thus causing their TCO2 levels to rise above the prescribed threshold. It seems someone has really given a lot of thought to this. I don't think it's at all probable let alone possible however, as I said, you've really got to hand it to them.
We've certainly come a long way from 'the rampant Cocaine abusing & habitually stall peeing groom' defence that was rolled out by a trainer in the US many years ago. :rolleyes: