Afleet Express ruled out by leg injury
In any sport getting to the top is hard, staying there is harder.
When Afleet Express got the best of an epic last-furlong duel with Fly Down to win the 141st running of the Grade One Travers Stakes at Saratoga he had put himself and his trainer, Jimmy Jerkins, into the big league.
The Jockey Club Gold Cup, at Belmont a week on Saturday, was the next step to a possible crack at the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November.
But Jerkens, like every other trainer, knows just how fragile any Thoroughbred can be and he found the first, tell-tale cracks in Afleet Express. It was a slight tear of the suspensory ligament in the colt’s near-fore, not enough to be career-ending but enough for Jerkens to call time and tear up the plans for this year.
“He’s got a lesion in his upper suspensory in his left leg,” Jerkens told the Daily Racing Form. “He needs 90 days for it to fill in. We’re looking to bring him back down in Florida and start training at the end of January.”
Jerkens first became aware of the problem over the weekend and immediately knew he could scrap 2010 and start again with a four-year-old campaign in mind for the horse who had taken over as his stable star when Quality Road was switched to Todd Pletcher. “We probably got it in time before it did irreparable damage to it,” Jerkens said. “It seems like you could never have the whole package. He was so fantastic physically, in such good shape, then you have something happen with a leg. What he’s done in such a short time is just amazing.”
Afleet Express has won four of his seven career starts and had made great progress through the summer, having won the Grade Three Pegasus Stakes, at Monmouth Park in June, and then run third to A Little Warm in the Grade Two Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga the following month prior to his victory in the Travers.
The injury to Afleet Express robs the Jockey Club Gold Cup of what was shaping to be a fascinating match-up with Blame, the winner of Whitney Handicap. The main opposition to Al Stall’s colt is likely to be headed by Fly Down, along with Suburban Handicap winner Haynesfield and 2009 Hollywood Gold Cup winner Rail Trip.
Others who could make the line-up include Mythical Power and Tranquil Manner, who finished second and third respectively to Quality Road in the Grade One Woodward Stakes at Saratoga three weeks ago.
A spin-off from the injury to Afleet Express is that it increases the chances of Lookin At Lucky taking the three-year-old championship for Lookin At Lucky who is likely to have his prep run for the Classic in the Grade Two Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park on October 2nd, according to trainer Bob Baffert.
Lookin At Lucky's Grade One victories, in the Preakness Stakes and Haskell Invitational, puts him in a now seemingly impregnable position as all the credible opposition has fallen by the wayside. First Drosselmeyer, the Belmont Stakes winner, was sidelined with an ankle injury and then Super Saver, the Kentucky Derby winner who had flopped in three runs since, was found to have sustained bone bruises in all four legs.
If nothing else, Lookin At Lucky has managed to stay at the top longer than the rest of them.
Tags: