NEWS
Midshipman to miss Triple Crown
Posted: Sunday, March 01, 2009 1:16 PM
MIDSHIPMAN WINNING THE 2008 BREEDERS' CUP JUVENILE (G1)
Benoit & Associates photo
by Mike Curry
Champion Midshipman will miss this year’s Triple Crown races because of a soft tissue injury to his left front leg.
The Unbridled’s Song colt was injured during morning exercise on Saturday at Godolphin’s Al Quoz Stables in Dubai.
“Unfortunately, Midshipman has knocked himself and inevitably this injury will rule him out of the Triple Crown races,” Godolphin’s racing manager, Simon Crisford, said on www.godolphin.com. “It is a huge shame as he had been pleasing us enormously and was ready to make his reappearance next Thursday.”
Midshipman was slated to make his three-year-old debut on Thursday in the $250,000 Al Bastakiya, a 1,800-meter (8.95-furlong) race that serves as a prep for the United Arab Emirates Derby (UAE-G2) on March 28.
“He is scheduled to return to America in early April and hopefully he will be back on the track later in the season,” Crisford said. “We can't risk him right now as we need to give his injury time to settle. It is in his best interest to give him time to return to peak fitness later in the year.”
Midshipman posted three wins and one second in four starts as a juvenile. He won the Eclipse Award as champion two-year-old male after closing his season with a 1 1/4-length win in the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) on October 25 at the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita Park.
A half brother to Grade 2 winner Fast Cookie, Midshipman is out of multiple Grade 2 winner Fleet Lady, by Avenue of Flags. He was bred in Kentucky by Stonerside Stable.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum acquired Midshipman when he purchased Bob and Janice McNair’s Stonerside Stable in September 2008. Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley operation bought the main 2,000-acre farm in Paris, Kentucky, training facilities in Aiken, South Carolina, about 80 horses in training, and approximately 170 broodmares, yearlings, and weanlings in the transaction.
Mike Curry is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor
