Battle of Midway, retired to stud after his victory last fall in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, has been found to be subfertile and has been put back into training after impregnating just five of the 60 mares to whom he was bred this spring, Elliott Walden, the president and chief executive officer of WinStar Farm, said Sunday. Battle of Midway, 4, is currently training at Keeneland, where he galloped on Sunday morning. He is under the care of trainer Rodolphe Brisset, who has a string of horses in Kentucky for WinStar – including Tampa Bay Derby winner Quip, who ran in the Preakness – but Battle of Midway will be returning to his original trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer, in about one month, Walden said. According to Walden, Battle of Midway was found to be missing a gene that impacted his sperm’s acrosome reaction, part of the process in which the female’s egg is fertilized. Walden said Great American, the insurance company through which a fertility policy on Battle of Midway had been purchased, made good on a subfertility claim and, in doing so, in essence paid for and took temporary ownership of Battle of Midway. But then WinStar Farm and Don Alberto Farm, which owned Battle of Midway prior to him being syndicated for stallion duty, bought the horse from the insurance company and put him back into training. Throughout the process, he remained at WinStar in Versailles, Ky. “This is why you buy insurance,” said Walden, who said this was the first time he’d dealt with a subfertility situation in the nearly 15 years he has worked for WinStar, which currently stands 21 stallions. Battle of Midway stood for an advertised fee of $20,000 this year. Battle of Midway being subfertile and returning to training echoes the story of the Hall of Fame racehorse Precisionist, winner of the 1985 Breeders' Cup Sprint, who sired a mere four horses at stud. He was retired at age 6, but returned to training and as a 7-year-old set a track record for one mile on dirt at Del Mar. Another prominent horse ruled to be subfertile was two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Lure, for whom an insurance claim was paid following his first year at stud in 1995. Lure, like Precisionist a member of the Hall of Fame, eventually did sire 119 foals, but finally was pensioned from stallion duty in 2003. Unlike Precisionist, though, he never returned to racing. Regarding Battle of Midway returning to training and racing, Walden said “the biggest question would be attitude, having been a stallion, but so far, so good. “He’s a classy horse,” Walden said. Battle of Midway won five times in 10 starts and earned more than $1.2 million last year in a campaign that began on Jan. 21 and concluded with the Breeders’ Cup victory at Del Mar on Nov. 3, all under the direction of Hollendorfer. He won the Grade 3 Affirmed, his lone graded stakes victory prior to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, but was competitive in major 3-year-old races, including a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby and second-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby. He also won the listed Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar, and was second in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby. Battle of Midway, by Smart Strike out of the Concerto mare Rigoletta, was purchased as a yearling at Saratoga for $410,000 by the Fox Hill Farms of Rick Porter, for whom he initially raced. After his second-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby, Porter sold Battle of Midway to a partnership of Don Alberto Stable and WinStar Farm, for whom he raced the rest of the year while remaining with Hollendorfer. Battle of Midway was retired to stud at WinStar following the Breeders’ Cup.