NEWS
Kentucky Derby hopeful, Lane's End winner With a City dies
Posted: Sunday, April 23, 2006
Equirace.com's With a City, upset winner of the Lane's End Stakes (G2) on March 25 at Turfway Park and under consideration for the Kentucky Derby (G1) on May 6 at Churchill Downs, died on Sunday after suffering from an unknown illness.
With a City fell ill on Thursday at trainer Mike Maker's barn at Churchill's Trackside training center in Louisville. The City Zip colt was shipped to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington on Friday, but his physical condition continued to deteriorate over the weekend. The decision to euthanize With a City was made on Sunday morning.
"They treated him for everything and ran tests on everything," Maker said. "They just don't know at this time. Hopefully, a necropsy will tell us more, but their feeling right now is that they're not so sure that they're going to be able to tell."
Maker said none of the other horses in his barn have displayed any symptoms shown by With a City, who suffered from seizures as his condition worsened.
"I've been on the racetrack my whole life, and the veterinarians had quite a bit of experience and they've never seen anything like it,'' Maker said. "They think maybe he had some kind of swelling on the brain, or something in the brain that was causing him to do what he was doing. But any kind of illness that we deal with on a day-to-day basis—the [equine] herpes, the strangles, or West Nile [virus] or something—they've ruled all that out.''
With a City finished 13th and last in the Arkansas Derby (G2) after his upset at odds of 48.80-to-1 in the $500,000 Lane's End. He earned $300,000 for his Lane's End win and was ranked eighth on the latest list of graded stakes earners under consideration for the Kentucky Derby.
The Derby field is limited to 20 entrants and the death of With a City moves Lane's End runner-up Seaside Retreat into the 20th spot on the graded stakes earnings list for those still under consideration for the Derby.
With a City would have been the first Derby starter for Maker, a former assistant to D. Wayne Lukas, and Equirace.com's Ron Peltz.
"He was absolutely a picture of health one minute and gone the next," Maker said.
