It seemed harmless enough at first. A small bump above a mare's eye; the kind of thing that prompts a, "What did you do?" upon discovery.
But something about it caused Michelle Michael to contact her veterinarian, Dr. Stefanie DeNoia, and request a farm call to examine Sadie's Magic. What transpired over the next six months formed the nucleus of a collaboration of veterinary professionals who became "Sadie's Squad."
Bred by Erika Neuberg of Nearaway Farm, Sadie's Magic was foaled in New Jersey March 14, 2013. By Street Magician out of the Two Davids mare Partner's Devon, she ran for her breeder for the first two years of her career. She won her debut for a $5,000 claiming price at Delaware Park June 11, 2016, for trainer Samuel Cronk. Claimed away from Neuberg by Bell Gable Stable in her first start in 2018, Sadie's Magic ran for three trainers over the next 14 months.
Racing for Bell Gable and trainer Scott Lake Aug. 31, 2019, she ran in a 51⁄2-furlong race for a $6,250 tag. The chart reads that she "dropped back suddenly on the turn, collapsed at the top of the stretch unseating the rider, was able to get to her feet after a few moments while bleeding profusely from the nostrils and was vanned off."
Neuberg customarily follows her homebreds and immediately contacted the mare's connections to offer to take her back and retire her. They agreed, and Neuberg drove her trailer to Delaware Park to retrieve Sadie's Magic. She won twice in 23 starts, placed in nine others, and earned $38,381.
Michael, an attorney by profession, was at that time boarding her horse Thundering Success at Nearaway Farm.
"I have a now 22-year-old Thoroughbred who I got as a teenager and he was slowing down a little," Michael said. "I was looking for something to take to the Retired Racehorse Project and then ultimately have as a forever horse. My trainer suggested I look at Sadie. I heard her whole story, went to meet her and fell in love with her."
After a few months of rest and downtime at the farm, Sadie's Magic officially belonged to Michael in November 2019. The partnership flourished, and the mare's second career sailed along.
"She was called Sensible Sadie because she has always had the nicest, kindest demeanor. She tries her heart out, and I think that's evident in her last race where she literally ran herself into the ground. She will just do whatever you ask. I have to be hyper-cognizant because she won't say no.
"I'm an amateur equestrian; I do a little bit of everything at a lower level. We had her scoped, and they didn't think there was anything from the bleeding incident that would impact her in her second career. But it was something we kept an eye on. Fortunately, that particular issue hasn't presented again."
Sadie's Magic and Michael foxhunted, competed in hunter derbies, dressage, the Retired Racehorse Project's Thoroughbred Makeover and the Real Rider Cup. They began eventing in late 2022 and won their first schooling horse trial.
In May 2021, Michael and her husband Andrew purchased Emerald Pines Farm, in Waterford Works, N.J., and Sadie's Magic and Thundering Success relocated. Two years later, Michael noticed a small bump on her mare's forehead. It was unremarkable enough but, choosing to err on the side of caution, she contacted DeNoia. The veterinarian showed up the next day with her ultrasound probe.
Finding the bone a bit irregular, she recommended that Michael take her horse for further examination with Dr. Jennifer Smith at New Jersey Equine Clinic in Millstone Township.
"At first Dr. Smith thought it was a little bone chip; she might have hit her head on something, so she did a surgery to de-bulk it and then cleaned it out. Then over the course of a few months, it kind of re-filled. But the horse was acting completely normal; I was doing hunter shows, I was eventing, she was out trail riding. You could palpate it, and she didn't seem to care. But after cross-country schooling one day in Medford in July, I took her ear bonnet off and was looking at it. I decided to take her back to Dr. Smith even if she thought I was crazy."
Smith tried the de-bulking procedure again. Concerned that the bump had refilled, she performed a biopsy. The results shocked all involved.
"It was just such a strange thing," Michael said. "I was at work when she got the results back. Ordinarily she'll just text, 'Everything's fine,' but I got a voicemail from her and I could just tell from her tone. She sounded alarmed. When I called her back, she said it was a sarcoma. I had never heard of sarcomas in horses, and my brain immediately went to 'sarcoid.' But she said 'No, it's not a sarcoid.' "
A sarcoid is a fairly common, and benign, skin tumor. A sarcoma is cancer.
Their next step was a trip to the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center for a CT scan. New Bolton has a standing CT machine capable of accommodating a horse's head -- one of the few available -- and Dr. David Levine performed the scan.
"He called and said, 'I'm a little speechless looking at this,' " Michael said. "It was crazy to see the amount of surface in her skull that was impacted. He said, 'I haven't seen something
