Champagne winner and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up Havana has been
scratched from his 2014 debut, Saturday’s Grade 2 Swale at Gulfstream Park, due
to a quarter crack.
“When he came out this morning, he was a little tender in his right front
foot. We couldn’t really see anything of note,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “I
went ahead and took him to the racetrack to see how he was, and he actually
trained fine. When he came back, he had a little bit of blood on the inside
quarter of his front foot and we saw a little quarter crack there.
“I don’t anticipate it’s going to be a big deal but the timing couldn’t have
been much worse, especially for today’s race.”
Havana was purchased for $575,000 at the 2013
Barrett’s March two-year-old sale by the Coolmore connections of Mrs. John
Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith. He captured his career debut at
Saratoga, scoring by 2 3/4 lengths in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight,
before posting a neck decision over Honor Code in the Grade 1 Champagne at
Belmont Park.
Havana finished second as the 5-2 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at
Santa Anita and was named an Eclipse Award finalist for champion two-year-old.
The gray son of Dunkirk didn’t return to the worktab this year until February
1. Havana was installed as the 9-5 favorite on the morning line in the
seven-furlong Swale.
“I really don’t have a firm plan until I can see how quickly we can get this
patched and ready to go,” Pletcher said when asked about the future. “I’ve had
some of these were you can literally within 48 hours have a patch on and never
look back, and some of them can be longer, more drawn-out processes.
“It’s literally day to day until we see once we get it patched, and then
we’ll come up with a plan.”
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