NEWS
Buddy’s Saint sidelined with ankle chip
Posted: Sunday, March 14, 2010 2:27 PM
BUDDY'S SAINT
Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo
by Mike Curry
Multiple graded stakes winner Buddy’s Saint showed signs of discomfort in his right front limb after a five-furlong workout on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, and trainer Bruce Levine said he has a bone chip in the ankle that will require surgery.
The injury will force the bay colt from the only crop of 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam off the '10 Triple Crown Trail, but Levine hopes to have him back for the second half of the year.
“I think he’ll probably make a full recovery, but we’ll talk to the surgeon tomorrow or Tuesday as soon as he has a chance to look at the X-rays,” the trainer said. “From what I see, I think he’ll make a full recovery.”
Buddy’s Saint showed flashes of brilliance at two with a 12-length win in the Nashua Stakes (G2) and a 4 3/4-length score in the Remsen Stakes (G2). He lost any chance in his three-year-old debut when he was bumped several times entering the first turn in the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) and bumped the inner rail.
Levine said he thinks he was only scratching the surface with Buddy’s Saint, who is out of Grade 1-placed stakes winner Tuzia, by Blushing John.
“I don’t ever think he reached his full potential, by any means,” Levine said. “He’s just a big kind of baby, who seemed like he was just playing in his races. I don’t think we saw his best yet.”
Mike Curry is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor
