NEWS
Whitney winner Commentator out for rest of year
Posted: Monday, September 19, 2005
Whitney Handicap (G1) winner Commentator will miss the rest of the year after aggravating a shin injury during his third-place performance in the Woodward Stakes (G1) on September 10 at Belmont Park.The injury was discovered sometime after the race and, after consulting with Dr. Larry Bramlage and Dr. Joseph Migliacci, connections of the four-year-old Distorted Humor gelding decided to rest him. He is expected to make a full recovery and return to racing in 2006.
Commentator, owned by Tracy Farmer and trained by Nick Zito, has won seven of nine career starts and earned $710,092. He won the first five starts of his career, all one-turn races, finishing his three-year-old campaign unbeaten.
He went to the sideline after his first loss, a disappointing seventh in his two-turn debut in the $100,000 Hal's Hope Handicap (G3) at Gulfstream Park on January 8.
Commentator came back on June 29 with a breakthrough performance, winning an allowance race at Belmont Park by 16½ lengths.
In his next start, he won the 1 1/8-mile Whitney, beating top handicap horse St. Liam by a neck while carrying six less pounds than that rival. Conditions for their rematch in the Woodward were quite different, as the connections of St. Liam ran two rabbits in the race to pressure Commentator, who also carried equal weight. Commentator finished third, 14½ lengths behind the winner, St. Liam.
After the Woodward, Zito said Commentator would return to sprinting. He would have been one of the top contenders for the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) had he been able to start in the race.—Pete Denk
