Rydilluc’s ‘ready to rock and roll’ in Canadian Turf

Rydilluc’s ‘ready to rock and roll’ in Canadian Turf

Rydilluc was sidelined after his ankles “lit up” on a nuclear scan last year (Kenny Martin/Adam Coglianese Photography) Rydilluc will seek a return to his winning ways in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Canadian Turf at Gulfstream Park. The son of Medaglia d’Oro stamped himself as one of the most exiting turf prospects in the country last season at Gulfstream Park, where he cavorted over the grass course for runaway victories in an allowance race and the Palm Beach Stakes. The then-three-year-old colt was so exciting, his owners and trainer Gary Contessa tested the Road to the Kentucky Derby in the Blue Grass Stakes, in which Rydilluc set the pace before fading to a respectable fourth over Keeneland’s synthetic surface. Back on turf for his next start, he captured the inaugural running of the $460,000 Penn Mile at Penn National last June. Favored in the Virginia Derby, Rydilluc showed his usual early speed but faded to eighth over a good turf course at Colonial Downs. An 11th-place finish in the Secretariat at Arlington Park last August convinced Contessa that something had to be wrong, but nothing showed up during veterinarian examinations. “This would be the easiest game in the world if horses could talk to us. We’d know when to bet; we’d all be retired; we’d all have houses in the Bahamas,” Contessa said.

“To the eye everything looked good. He trained good; he ate good.
We ran him and he ran two very dull races in a row. The first one was in the
Virginia Derby. It had rained all day so we assumed it was the soft turf. He
came off that race and trained good. We said, ‘Let’s try him again and go to the
Secretariat.’ He ran poorly again.”

Knowing something wasn’t right, Contessa and
his owners sent Rydilluc for a nuclear scan.

“They take a nuclear isotope and put it in a horse’s vein and take a full body
scan and whatever is bothering the horse lights up. His front ankles lit up. To
the eye the ankles looked fine. You watch the ankles; you work with them, and
the horse doesn’t show any pain.

“But his ankles lit up. They were obviously
bothering him. There were no clinical signs of it,” Contessa said. “We just
stopped with him and turned him out in upstate New York and let him be a horse.
We blistered his ankles a little bit and then returned him to training at Palm
Meadows.”

Rydilluc turned in an eye-catching seven-furlong workout in 1:22 on turf at
Palm Meadows on February 12 under jockey Edgar Prado.

“He’s trained lights-out. I didn’t want to him to work like that, but if you saw
Edgar, he was like this,” said Contessa, holding his hands together to fashion a
tight-hold of the reins. “He’s had a few days to recover. He hasn’t run for
six
months. I don’t think it’ll take anything out of him. At least, we know he’s
ready to rock and roll.”

Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey,
who will send out Top Billing in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, will be
represented in the Canadian Turf by Reload. The five-year-old son of Hard Spun made his grass bow last out on January 17,
when he led from flagfall to finish in a salty allowance heat. Leading rider
Javier Castellano has the return call aboard the Phipps Stable homebred, who
drew the eight hole in the 12-horse affair.

“If there’s speed, he doesn’t have to be (on the lead), but he’ll be right
there,” McGaughey said. “If he breaks good, he’ll be right there.”

Reload has been a bit of a project for McGaughey. After the big chestnut paired
up impressive victories at Keeneland and Belmont last spring, he tailed off a
bit, but appears to be ready to fulfill his potential.

“Reload has always been a horse that’s had a lot of ability, but his feet have
bothered him,” McGaughey explained. “It seems to me that when we get his feet
right, then he’s right. I had him down here last winter at Payson Park and
changed his shoes.

“We got him to Keeneland and he came back and ran a great race
(there) and then he ran a great race at Belmont on an off track, but then he
went off form again. I ran him at Aqueduct and he didn’t run any good. I sent
him straight down to Payson and we worked on his feet again. Keeping him there
on that racetrack seems to help him.

“I had worked him on the turf there last winter and I didn’t particularly think
that it did a whole lot for him,” McGaughey continued. “With his pedigree he
should run on it, so we tried him again this year and he was completely
different. He ran really well (at Gulfstream) and he came out of that race
really well.”

Reload has recorded two bullet drills at Payson since his last start, included a
best-of-seven move in :48 1/5 on the turf on Tuesday.

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