Shackleford likely to retire after one more race
It was a likely possibility that the 2011 Grade 1 Preakness Stakes winner, Shackleford, over the same year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Animal Kingdom, had run his last race, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, where he was out of the gates slowly and eventually
finished the race in seventh, as if sending the message to his connections that he had enough of it.
It looks like Shackleford will get his much needed rest, as trainer Dale Romans confirmed that the son of Forestry will likely make one more start before retiring to stud at John Phillips' Darby Dan Farm in Lexington.
The Kentucky bred 4-year-old colt, Shackleford, will either run in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct race track on 24 November, 2012, or the Grade 1 Clark Handicap presented by Norton Healthcare at Churchill Downs on 23 November, 2012.
"We might run him in the Clark," Romans said. "We'll see how he's going into the race, but the plan right now is to go into (the Clark) or the Cigar Mile. As long as he trains well, he'll have one more race."
The Clark Handicap will be run over a distance of 1 1/8 miles, and it will be for the first time for Shackleford since the Donn Handicap in February to run over 1 1/8 miles, precisely six races back.
As a three-year-old, Shackleford ran at 1 1/8 miles twice, and on both occasions finished second. Once in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, one race before his Grade 1 Kentucky Derby fourth place finish, and then in July last year, when he ran second to Bob Baffert
trained, Coil, in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.
Though, as a 4-year-old, shorter distances have worked real well for Shackleford, who finished third in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap, and then posted back-to-back victories in the seven furlong long Churchill Downs Stakes and then the mile long Grade 1 Met
Mile.
Owned by Michael Lauffer, Bill Cubbedge, and Phillips Racing Partnership, Shackleford has earned $2,824,047 to date, and after an open house at Darby Dan lasting from 9 to 11 November, the soon-to-be-retired Shackleford will return to Romans’ barn at Churchill
Downs.
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