Royal Mo suffered a career-ending injury and the Preakness hopes are now dashed for his connections. These things happen but don’t be shocked if the PETA clan is out in full force. The group known as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals can go overboard at times.
What that organization does not know or care to know is that racehorses are fragile animals. They are running at upwards of 40 miles per hour on legs no more sturdy than a runway model shows off.
Royal Mo was putting in his final work for the May 20 Preakness Stakes when he suffered a sesamoid fracture to his right front ankle. Don’t even think about blaming his trainer John Shirreffs, who is of the utmost character and is well known for taking care of his runners. He trained the great Horse of the Year Zenyatta to win 19 of her 20 starts and the loss was by the slimmest of margins.
The positive thing about the injury is that it was just the right sesamoid and not a condylar fracture.
Royal Mo was sent to New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania, the facility best known for treating 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro after he fractured a hind leg and could not finish the 2006 Preakness.
Gary Stevens had flown in for the workout and was aloft Royal Mo in the drill. The work was going fine and then the rider sensed something was wrong, Stevens: “Luckily I had a stranglehold on him. He was just rattling off 12s. He was going to go in a minute. I was thinking about how much I was going to let him gallop out. And then I heard a loud pop. I was hoping he had just overreached, but that wasn’t it. He was relishing the track. The track had a good bottom. The track had nothing to do with it. He was on cruise control.”
Royal Mo was entered in the Kentucky Derby, but was ranked 21st on points and earnings and was put on the also-eligible list.
Royal Mo still may have a future at stud. He stalked to no avail when out in post ten in the Rebel Stakes and if you delve into the pedigree of this runner the classy runner Irish Linnet shows. That win machine won 18 times, took a plethora of stakes and banked $1.1 million.
In other Preakness news, Multiplier and Senior Investment, both worked five furlongs at Keeneland on May 14 tuning up for the Preakness. Both drilled solidly with Multiplier a bit keener to run. Multiplier was timed in 1:00.80, Senior Investment in 1:02.
Cloud Computing completed his preparation for the Preakness Stakes Saturday at Belmont Park. The Chad Brown student went to the track early in the rain on Saturday and worked alone. He drilled a half-mile in 48.56 seconds on the training track and galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.69.
The trainer was relieved about the workout, Brown: “The horse breezed well. He went a good half, out five. I thought he did it really well. He’s moving sound and strong. I’m happy with this horse. If he comes out of it in good shape, we’ll be on to Maryland. I feel very comfortable that we gave him the six weeks from the Wood. I see a horse that’s really doing well.”
Brown is kind of the new breed of horseman and he will be a force in this game for decades to come. His specialty is turf horses and he has trained several champions like Big Blue Kitten, Flintshire and Stacelita. He won the Eclipse Award in 2016 for the best trainer in the country.
Brown has been around horses for most of his life. He worked with Standardbreds as a teenager and then learned from the Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. He stayed with Shug for years but then really got an education when he went to work for the late great Bobby Frankel.
Frankel was known as a taskmaster and he took no guff from man or horse. If an owner didn’t like the way Frankel was handling a horse, Frankel would usually tell the owner to ‘take a hike’.
During the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Frankel was called back to California on a personal matter and Brown stepped in to saddle Ginger Punch to win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
As for Cloud Computing’s chances, he is in the right barn to start with.
Cloud Computing has never run a bad race in his three career starts and he was over seven lengths clear of his nearest rival in the Gotham Stakes in only his third start. The sophomore was wide in his last race when beaten by Irish War Cry in the Wood Memorial. The $200,000 purchase is obviously a willing worker. As far as the pedigree is concerned, Cloud Computing has some things going for him. His dam earned almost $250,000 and if you delve into the blood, Halo America becomes visible. That mare took the Grade 1 Apple Blossom and banked over $1.4 million.
One of the outsiders in the Preakness will be Term of Art. The runner worked on May 13 at Santa Anita. The Doug O’Neill trainee worked six furlongs in 1:13.80 and was equipped with blinkers. He will also be with blinkers for the Preakness. He has not raced with blinkers in his last three races but both of his wins came with the blinkers in action.
The trainer liked what he saw in the work, O’Neill: “He worked great. The track was demanding – safe but slow. I’m very happy. We know he’s a longshot, but he’s doing well.”
At this point, that is basically all you can ask for that a horse is doing well. And this is not O’Neill’s first rodeo. The trainer won the Preakness in 2012 with I’ll Have Another. Last year, he finished third in the Preakness with Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist.
Mother Nature can always wreak havoc on a big racing day but things should be calm in Baltimore for the Preakness Stakes. There may be a shower or two the day before the Preakness in Baltimore but the extended forecast calls for a clear and steamy day on May 20.
Racing on off surface, like the Kentucky Derby was, can be taxing on a horse. One stat that players can look to is the fact that both Sunday Silence and Smarty Jones won the Derby on wet tracks and repeated on fast tracks at Pimlico in the Preakness.
