Super Saver out with leg injuries
When Super Saver trailed in behind Afleet Express in the Grade One Travers Stakes at Saratoga last month many observers felt that it was vindication of the growing belief that the colt could be classed as a one-run wonder.
Super Saver, who was beaten 24 lengths when he finished 10th of 11 in the Travers, had not won since his two-and-a-half-length victory over Ice Box in the Kentucky Derby in May when he ploughed through sloppy track. Since then he has been made to look somewhat ordinary in three subsequent defeats in the Preakness, Haskelll Invitational and Travers. But his trainer, Todd Pletcher, had not lost faith in his first Kentucky Derby winner and now, it appears, the colt been battling unseen problems.
Pletcher decided that Super Saver needed a full veterinary examination and he was sent to the Rood and Riddle equine clinic in Kentucky. A bone scan carried out there has revealed that Super Saver has sustained condylar bruising. In a statement Dr Larry Bramlage said: “A bone scan was performed on Super Saver which revealed marked activity in all four cannon bones.
“The left front fetlock has the most radiographic change with a major bruise on the cannon bone. Once these are resolved, the horse should return to his previous form.”
For Pletcher, who simply could not believe that the horse who had finally snapped his losing streak in the Derby had simply got lucky, took the news as something of a relief even though it means that Super Saver is now off the track for a spell. “This explains a lot to me,” Pletcher told the Blood Horse. “I couldn’t understand those last few efforts where Super Saver didn’t extend and lay it out there like he had in every other race he ran through the KentuckyDerby victory. He has always been very gutsy and determined in his races, even when he set fast fractions, so this answers a lot of head scratching. When he’s right, he’s the ultimate racehorse.
“He has always been very gutsy and determined in his races, even when he set fast fractions, so this answers a lot of head scratching.”
Elliott Walden, racing manager for owners WinStar Farm, said that Super Saver has been sent back to the training barn at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, and that his progress would be monitored.
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