Audible goes out of training, likely won't race until end of year

Florida Derby winner and Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Audible has been taken out of training and won’t race again until the end of this year at the earliest, trainer Todd Pletcher said.

Audible in late May was sent from Todd Pletcher’s base at Belmont Park to the Rood and Riddle Clinic in Kentucky for a full physical exam because Pletcher wasn’t satisfied with the way the horse was training. Veterinarians found no substantive problems with the colt and, after spending a short time at WinStar Farm, a part-owner of the colt, Audible returned to New York.

But after watching the horse continue training since his return, Pletcher recommended pulling the plug again, and Audible has been shipped back to WinStar.

“The bottom line is I just really wasn’t satisfied with his training,” Pletcher said Friday morning. “After discussing it with the connections we felt like some additional time would do him well. Look forward to getting him back in the fall, hopefully with a race at Gulfstream before the Pegasus. If we delayed much more, we’d be putting that plan in jeopardy.”

The 2019 Pegasus World cup is scheduled for Jan. 26.

Pletcher said it’s still not certain what’s bothering Audible. He said Audible travels like a horse battling lower cannon-bone bruising, a common cause of racehorse soreness, but nuclear scintigraphy failed to suggest that as a diagnosis.

“He came to us last summer before the Saratoga meet. He’s been going pretty strong now for about a year straight,” Pletcher said.

Audible, by Into Mischief, won the Holy Bull and the Florida Derby before finishing a troubled third behind Justify and Good Magic in the Kentucky Derby.