Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
The ultimate prize proved to be out of reach again for Padua Stables.
With reigning 2-year-old champion Vindication too far behind in his training schedule to be ready for the Oct. 25 Breeders' Cup Classic, stable owner and Clearwater resident Satish Sanan announced Monday that the son of Seattle Slew will be retired.
"We knew from the beginning we were fighting time," said Nadia Sanan, Padua Stables general manager. "A day gone by is a day closer to the Breeders' Cup. We really wanted to get in a couple of prep races, but we couldn't. We wouldn't be doing him any justice to rush him out there, because he put his heart on the line for us every time."
The black colt has not raced since straining his left front suspensory ligament in February but had recovered enough through surgery, hyperbaric therapy and a stem-cell procedure to resume training at Padua's Summerfield facility. He was later sent to California to work with trainer Bob Baffert, who prompted the decision to retire the colt when he told Satish Sanan there was not enough time to prep for the Grade I, $4-million race for some of the world's best horses.
"I am truly disappointed," Baffert said in a statement. "Vindication was the most exciting 2-year-old I have trained."
Vindication, a winner of all four career races - including the 2002 Breeders' Cup Juvenile - and the Eclipse Award as top juvenile male, will stand at Hill 'n' Dale Farm in Lexington, Ky. for an undisclosed fee. He was purchased for $2.5-million at the 2001 Fasig-Tipton Yearling Sale.
The Classic deadline was made more pressing because it had been agreed after his Breeders' Cup Juvenile win that he would not race past 3 and would be syndicated before being turned out to stud. Hill 'n' Dale reportedly spent more than $20-million for a share of his breeding rights.
Nadia Sanan said inquiries have been pouring into her office since the announcement.
"We're all regrouping," she said. "We were not expecting him to retire for a couple more months."
Vindication will be shipped from Baffert's barn at Santa Anita to Hill 'n' Dale in time for viewing before the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
And now Padua Stables searches for its next star. One of its top 2-year-olds, Academy, was scheduled to race at Saratoga on Sunday but the race was scratched because of rain. Sanan thinks she may have acquired Padua Stables' next "special horse" on Aug. 6 when she signed a sale-topping $2.7-million ticket for an Unbridled colt at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale.
"There's not too many crops of Unbridled left," Sanan said of the 1990 Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic winner that died in 2001. "There's this one and next, and we think we got a very good one."
CELL-OFF: The English Jockey Club has issued a directive it hopes will eliminate the appearance of impropriety among riders by prohibiting access to cellular phones before races.
Jockeys can't make cell calls within 30 minutes of first post until the start of the final race on a card. Emergency calls on land lines will be monitored and recorded by stewards.