Hogan to oversee $7M equine hospital in N.Y.

BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

MILLSTONE - A local but nationally recognized equine veterinary surgeon will take her services to a $7 million facility in Elmont, N.Y., next year.

Dr. Patricia Hogan, who has worked at the New Jersey Equine Clinic (NJEC) in the Clarksburg section of Millstone for the past 11 years, will soon oversee a new equine hospital near Belmont Park.

Hogan, one of the few women in the field of equine surgery, gained national attention in 2004 as the veterinarian who saved the vision of Smarty Jones after the horse suffered a terrible head injury. The animal went on to win that year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Hogan helped design the hospital in Elmont. She said the facility should be up and running by the spring or summer of next year.

The 11,500-square-foot building will be a state-of-the art surgical/diagnostic facility, she said. Besides surgery, the hospital will offer nuclear scintigraphy (commonly known as bone scanning), digital radiography, a treadmill and other services, according to Hogan.

She said she got involved with the project at its inception when she was asked for input on its design. Dr. James Hunt, the facility's head veterinarian, later asked Hogan to be chief surgeon at the hospital.

Unlike NJEC, which is located in a rural atmosphere, the new hospital will be in an urban area and cannot offer turnout or layup care for its patients, according to Hogan.

The clientele at the hospital will come from New York racetracks such as the Belmont and the Aqueduct in Jamaica, N.Y., as well as an estimated 15,000 horses from Long Island, N.Y., according to Hogan.

Hogan admitted that there will be some overlap between NJEC's client base and the yet-to-be named clinic.

She hopes to continue working at the equine clinic on a part-time basis, but said that still remains to be decided. She said she had spoken to Dr. Scott Palmer, the owner of the clinic, about buying his facility, but he said he was not yet ready to retire.

Hogan, who lives in the Cream Ridge section of Upper Freehold with her husband, Ed Lohmeyer, a standardbred trainer, will not move. She said she has arranged with the hospital to have a driver take her to and from New York to work three days a week. She will not have to work on weekends, she said, nor will she have emergency duties.

When asked about the emergency nature of a horse with a broken leg, Hogan explained that most of the surgeries she performs are scheduled.

According to Hogan, it is better for the horse to get used to the idea that it can't use its leg and to calm down before surgery.

She said modern veterinary surgeons prefer to wait a day after a horse breaks a leg before operating, as was the case when she operated on Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro.

Among the other famous horses Hogan has treated is Afleet Alex, winner of two legs of the 2005 Triple Crown, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Hogan treated Afleet Alex when he suffered a fractured ankle after his Triple Crown victories. She said his trainer, Tim Ritchey, watched the surgery. Hogan said she knew the horse had been just been syndicated for stud, but asked Ritchey not to tell her how much the horse was worth until the operation was over. She later discovered she put a screw in the ankle of a $36 million horse.

Her new clientele will consist primarily of thoroughbred racehorses, but Hogan's heart really belongs to standardbreds. They are the breed that introduced her to the world of horses as a young girl growing up in Edison, Middlesex County.

Among the well-known standardbreds she has treated are Artsplace, whose offspring have won more than $117 million, and Rainbow Blue, the 2004 Horse of the Year.