NEWS
Rags to Riches misses workout with fever
Posted: Monday, August 27, 2007 5:26 PM
by Phil Janack
Rags to Riches, the first filly in 102 years to win the Belmont Stakes (G1), missed a planned workout on Monday morning at Saratoga Race Course with a fever.
It was the first setback in a month for Rags to Riches, who has posted three workouts at Saratoga since receiving medical clearance to return to training on August 1.
A fourth breeze had been scheduled for Sunday, but trainer Todd Pletcher pushed it back when the main track came up wet following overnight rain.
"She had literally a perfect month up until this morning," Pletcher said. "Everybody's been watching her train and knows how well she's been working and how great she's been galloping and how good she looks.
"It's just potentially a little bug of some sort, maybe a 24-hour bug, I don't know. We'll play it day by day now."
A routine check at 4 a.m. EDT on Monday showed Rags to Riches' temperature at 101.4 degrees. It eventually elevated to 102 degrees, at which point Pletcher decided to scrap the move.
By 4:30 p.m. Monday, Rags to Riches' temperature had dropped back to normal and blood drawn earlier in the day also came back normal.
Pletcher said he would do another blood test on Tuesday morning and monitor Rags to Riches throughout the day, possibly even bringing her back to the track.
"I might train her if she's as frisky as she is right now," he said. "We'll pull another blood on her and then I could breeze her on Wednesday possibly, but it's premature to make any decisions just yet.
"If you didn't have a thermometer, then you would have never thought anything was wrong with her this morning. She was bright and alert and at the front of her stall, nibbling at her hay rack and raring to go."
Rags to Riches is unraced since her historic Belmont victory on June 9. A fever knocked her out of the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) on July 21, and the next day she was pulled up in an aborted work.
A series of examinations and a trip to the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center followed, all proving inconclusive.
"It's frustrating because we've obviously had a series of setbacks that you wouldn't want with any horse, much less her,” Pletcher said.
Pletcher said it was too soon to determine whether Rags to Riches would make her next scheduled start in the Ruffian Handicap (G1) against older horses on September 8 at Belmont Park. The Gazelle Stakes (G1) against fellow three-year-old fillies is September 15.
"I'm not ruling anything out," Pletcher said. "We do have the luxury of the Gazelle a week later."
Phil Janack is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
