Multiple graded stakes winner Wanderin Boy, a career earner of $1,213,759 who earned four of his nine wins in graded stakes, was euthanized on Saturday after shattering the sesamoids in his left foreleg.
Stone Farm’s homebred Wanderin Boy broke down approaching the stretch of the $300,000 Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile Handicap (G1) at Aqueduct. The Seeking the Gold horse was vanned off the track.
Trained by Nick Zito throughout a five-year racing career that included nine wins and six runner-up finishes in 25 starts, multiple Grade 1-placed Wanderin Boy earned his first stakes win in the 2005 Mineshaft Handicap (G3) at Fair Grounds. The seven-year-old horse also won the 2006 Brooklyn Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G2) at Belmont Park and Ben Ali Stakes (G3) at Keeneland Race Course.
Wanderin Boy finished second to 2006 Horse of the Year Invasor (Arg) in the '06 Pimlico Special Handicap (G1). He entered the Cigar Mile Handicap off a runner-up finish to reigning Horse of the Year Curlin in the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) on September 27 at Belmont Park, a race in which he also finished second in 2006.
Wanderin Boy won the 2007 Alysheba Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs. He placed in six graded stakes races, including a runner-up finish to Lawyer Ron in the 2007 Whitney Handicap (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.
Zito could not be immediately reached for comment.
Bred in Kentucky, Wanderin Boy is out of multiple stakes winner Viv Kid, by Pleasant Colony. He is a half brother to multiple Grade 3 winner Early Warning and multiple graded stakes-placed winner Vivid Sunset.