Upstart spikes fever, misses scheduled work

Upstart’s Derby plans are on hold after he spiked a fever (Lauren King/Adam Coglianese Photography)

Holy Bull (G2) winner Upstart (Flatter) was scheduled to breeze Saturday morning at Rick Violette’s Palm Meadows base in
Boynton Beach, Florida, but the three-year-old colt spiked a fever, forcing the
postponement of the work.

“He had a higher than normal temperature, so we have to see
where that’s going,” Violette said. “We just skipped the breeze, and we’ll see
what happens. If it goes up, then we’ll have to really address it, and if it’s
just a bump on the screen, we’ll re-plan his breeze. We’ll gallop him a couple
days and see what’s going on.

“Right now, it’s too early to give any kind of intelligent answer other than,
we’ll take his temperature later and see what happens.”

Violette said the bay ridgling, who also recorded runner-up finishes in the
Fountain of Youth (G2) (via disqualification after crossing the wire first) and
Florida Derby (G1), was discovered to have a high temperature just before
leaving the barn for his breeze.

“We noticed it midmorning,” the horseman said. “His temp was a little bit
higher than normal early, and he had a dirty nose later. We had tack on him and
were ready to go, and (assistant trainer) Melissa (Cohen) took (his temperature)
again, and it was climbing.