Peace Rules, Sarava retired
Three-time Grade 1 hero PEACE RULES (Jules) and 2002 Belmont S.
(G1) winner SARAVA (Wild Again) have both been retired due to
recent injuries. Both horses had been pointing toward Saturday’s
$1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) at Belmont Park.
Peace Rules earned $3,084,278 over an illustrious three-year
campaign that included victories in the Blue Grass S. (G1),
Haskell Invitational H. (G1), Suburban H. (G1), Louisiana Derby (G2),
Oaklawn H. (G2), New Orleans H. (G2) and Generous S. (G3). The
four-year-old colt also placed in last year’s Kentucky Derby (G1)
and Travers S. (G1). Trained by Bobby Frankel, the Florida-bred
Peace Rules recorded an overall line of 19-9-2-2.
Bob Baffert said a re-aggravated suspensory injury was to
blame for Sarava’s retirement. The five-year-old worked Monday at
Belmont and the irritation was spotted early Tuesday.
“He worked fine, and our plan for him was the Jockey Club
Gold Cup and the Breeders’ Cup (G1),” Baffert said Tuesday.
“But this morning, there was a little filling, some
irritation. We did an ultra scan on him and found that he had
tweaked himself a bit. It was an old injury he re-aggravated, and
they told us it would be at least four months. He’s getting
older, so the decision was made to retire him.”
Sarava returned the highest win price in Belmont history when
the former Kenny McPeek trainee scored at 70-1, defeating
Medaglia d’ Oro (El Prado) by a half-length. The Kentucky-bred
also won the Sir Barton S. at Pimlico and earned $773,825 for a
mark of 17-3-3-0.