NEWS
Fatal Bullet sidelined by knee injury
Posted: Sunday, December 21, 2008 12:45 PM
FATAL BULLET WINNING THE KENTUCKY CUP SPRINT STAKES (G3)
Photo by Z
by Jeff Apel
Reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Fatal Bullet is expected to be sidelined from racing for three months after bruising his right knee while preparing for a planned start in the $250,000 Malibu Stakes (G1) on December 26 at Santa Anita Park.
Trainer Reade Baker is confident that Fatal Bullet will make a complete recovery from the injury, which was discovered after the three-year-old Red Bullet gelding worked five furlongs in 1:02.20 handily on December 13 on Santa Anita’s synthetic Pro-Ride surface.
“It’s the type of injury he can come back 100%,” Baker said.
Baker said Fatal Bullet will be flown to Florida and spend time recovering at Ocala Stud. He expects Fatal Bullet to make his first start as a four-year-old next year at Woodbine.
The long-range goal for Fatal Bullet is the 2009 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which will be held at the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita next year for the second consecutive year. The bay gelding earned Sovereign Awards as Canada’s 2008 Horse of the Year and champion sprinter after finishing second in the Sentient Flight Group Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) on October 25 at the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita.
Baker said Fatal Bullet will return to racing next season.
“That’s the only reason we’re stopping on him. We had to stop some time,” Baker said. “We could have done a lot of things. But we didn’t want to risk it.”
Danny “Bear” Dion’s Bear Stables owns Fatal Bullet, a career earner of $767,996 who won six of eight starts in 2008. The bay gelding posted consecutive wins in the Bold Venture Stakes on July 20 at Woodbine, the Tom Ridge Labor Day Stakes on September 1 at Presque Isle Downs, and the Kentucky Cup Sprint Stakes (G3) on September 27 at Turfway Park.
Jeff Apel is an assistant editor of Thoroughbred Times TODAY
