A sled dog named Balto inspired the Iditarod, and even a movie, for his role in bringing medicine to children threatened with diphtheria.

Now Balto's namesake is on the edge of making news with medicine.

This is a horse, named Balto Star, who received stem-cell therapy for a torn tendon in one leg. He is a son of Glitterman.

Balto Star is expected to return to the races Friday at Gulfstream Park near Miami after more than a year away from the track.

Now 8 years old, he's a horse you might recall for winning major races leading up to the 2001 Kentucky Derby. Among his conquests were the Arkansas Derby and the Turfway Spiral Stakes (now the Lane's End Stakes).

His owners, Stuart and Anita Subotnick, allowed their grandson to name the horse. He picked "Balto Star."

"I must have seen that movie eight or 10 times with him," said Subotnick. Because the 1995 movie Balto was so popular, Balto Star developed a fan club, mostly young girls, who were thrilled to see him in the Derby.

He finished 14th of 17. But that wasn't the end of Balto Star. He won more graded stakes in 2003 and won the last race he ran, the Grade II Meadowlands Breeders' Cup. He earned $1,048,134.

Then he tore the fibers of the tendon in his right front leg.

Hope in stem cells

Tendon injuries always have been problematical in horses. The scar tissue that eventually fills the tear can compromise smooth function in the leg.

Rarely do horses return to their former competitive level, if they return at all. Various treatment methods have not been completely successful.

Stem-cell therapy is the newest treatment that the veterinary community has begun to embrace. At least two bioresearch companies, one in the United States and the other in Great Britain, are using technology to heal some equine injuries by using the horse's own fat cells: its adult stem cells.

Evidence suggests that these stem cells can develop into connective tissue such as that found in tendons. Stem cells also have many other uses in horses.

The regenerative potential is such that horse owners might some day be able to keep their animals' stem cells on file, in case of future injury.

Stem cells, as described in the February issue of The American Quarter Horse Racing Journal, are "immature cells that do not yet have a specific job in the body but can form into a particular type of cell."

Unlike embryonic stem cells, which can develop into any type of cell in the body, the adult stem cells as used in equine treatments are more restricted, as described in the article.

But adult cells have become the source of choice, because use of embryonic cells remains a lightning rod for controversy.

Controversy arises because embryos are destroyed in the process of harvesting those cells.

In collecting adult stem cells from horses, veterinarians have learned to remove a small amount of fat, three to four inches in length, from the animal's buttocks close to its tail.

A speedy process

Balto Star gave up a small pad of fat from his behind on a Monday. Two days later he received his stem-cell treatment in his injured tendon and was on his way home.

The process went smoothly and quickly thanks to overnight mail, test tubes, ice, and foam insulation.

Working at Rhinebeck Equine in Rhinebeck, N.Y., Dr. Lance Bassage extracted Balto Star's fat while the horse stood. The horse had been sedated and treated with a local anesthetic.

The veterinarian then placed the fat in test tubes from Vet-Stem Inc. of California.

He repackaged the test tubes in the foam container they had arrived in, surrounded by ice packs, and then returned them via overnight mail to Vet-Stem.

The package Bassage received back from the lab on that Wednesday contained syringes filled with Balto Star's own stem cells, extracted from his fat. Using the syringes, Bassage said, he injected the stem cells directly into the injured tendon.

The veterinary surgeon said he has given the same treatment to perhaps six horses, including Balto Star's farm mate, Delightful Irving, who had suffered a suspensory ligament injury.

"Most go home that evening," Bassage said.

Neither Balto Star nor Delightful Irving was free of problems, however. Both had to undergo intestinal surgery some time later after suffering colic.

Bassage said the colic was not related to the tendon treatments. But it underscored what both horses have been through in their time away from racing, he said.

Fingers crossed

Stem-cell treatments are not inexpensive. Subotnick said he paid $2,500 for Balto Star's therapy.

"But this is Balto," Subotnick said about his best racehorse. "We decided if we could get Balto back for $2,500, why not do it."

Nonetheless, all involved realized the treatment was a gamble. A successful return to racing is not guaranteed.

Subotnick said he read about the fairly new treatment in a horse magazine right about the time Balto Star was injured. Jim Moloney, manager of Subotnick's Anstu Farm near Millbrook, N.Y., asked Bassage whether he would be willing to try it on Balto Star and Delightful Irving.

"We were not opposed to trying a new treatment we found in a magazine," Moloney said.

They felt they had little to lose. Balto Star, a gelding, wasn't going into the stud. Besides, he appeared to be unhappy at the farm, removed from the excitement of the track.

"He's an old soldier," Subotnick said. Thus, after healing, Balto Star went first to a training center in Ocala, Fla., then back to his trainer, Todd Pletcher, who is racing at Gulfstream.

Back in the farm country of New York, Moloney and Bassage will be watching Balto Star race in Florida.

"You can bet that unless I'm in surgery, I'll be glued to the TV," Bassage said.

"Stem cells are the future," he added. "We're just touching the tip of the iceberg.

"I just hope everything goes well for him," he also said. "I'm keeping my fingers crossed." - reprint from Lexington Hearld-Leader