Jackson Bend continues to do well after training mishap

Last updated: 8/19/12 6:25 PM

The tough veteran Jackson
Bend, seen here taking the Carter in April over Caleb’s Posse,
is recovering well

(NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography)

Multiple Grade 1 winner Jackson Bend continues to mend following his eventful
Saturday morning on Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track.

“He’s doing good. I was playing with him a little while ago,” Hall of Fame
trainer Nick Zito said. “He was trying to bite people all morning. He had a lot of
well-wishers this morning. Rosie Napravnik came over to visit him, and he was
trying to bite her. He’s a funny horse.”

Owned by Robert LaPenta and Fred Brei, Jackson Bend was involved in a collision
with another horse, the seven-year-old Little Nick, on Saturday. Neither horse
sustained any injuries in the incident, but Jackson Bend was shaken up.

“I hope everything works out good,” Zito said. “I walked him today. I’ll
probably take him for a trail ride tomorrow, and then we’ll see if toward the
end of the week we can get him back to the track. He had a little swelling on
his left side; that’s where he fell. Other than that, he is fine and feeling
real good.”

The five-year-old son of Hear No Evil has been pointing toward a title defense of
the Grade 1, $500,000 Forego on September 1 at the Spa, but those plans are now in
question.

“It would be an amazing story, a miracle, if he could make the Forego,” Zito
said. “We just have to take it one day at a time. We never say never.”

His usual contemplative self, Zito marveled at the circumstances surrounding
Saturday’s events: A horse named Little Nick collides with his stable star;
Little Nick is a half-brother to Little Mike, winner of Saturday’s Grade 1
Arlington Million; and in Saturday’s 5TH race at Saratoga, Zito runs second to
a horse trained by Anthony Quartarolo, who trains Little Nick.

“It just shows you that racing is so complicated,” Zito said. “That’s a good
quote: Racing is so complicated, and it’s so intertwined. Like they say, it’s
not an exact science and no one has any lock on it. No one can say, ‘This is
this or this is that or this is this or this is that.’ You can’t say that.”

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