Hollywood Park: Mullins stars sidelined

Shigeki Kikkawa

Wilkinson, with Martin Pedroza riding, wins the American Handicap. He underwent surgery for colic and will not race this summer.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Two of trainer Jeff Mullins’s top horses were sidelined this week with illness and injury.

Tuesday, Wilkinson, the winner of the Grade 2 American Handicap on May 26, underwent emergency colic surgery. He will be out of training for the rest of the summer.

Wednesday, Antares World was removed from consideration for Sunday’s $100,000 Beverly Hills Handicap because she was not training well, Mullins said.

“To lose two graded stakes horses in two days is pretty tough to handle,” Mullins said.

Wilkinson was a candidate for the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile, a Grade 1 on turf on June 30.

“He’s going to have two months off,” Mullins said. “They expect a 100-percent recovery for him to go back in training.”

The situation surrounding Antares World is less clear, Mullins said. He said she was unhappy with the way she was training. A three-time stakes winner, Antares World was scheduled to make her first start for Mullins in the Beverly Hills, having previously been trained by Steve Specht in Northern California.

“She’s in moderate training,” Mullins said. “We’re still doing diagnostics on her to figure out what the hitch is.

“We can’t find it. She’s probably 80 percent. She’s gotten a little better every day. I think it’s a bad timing thing for this weekend.”

The Shoemaker field will include a shipper in Little Mike, the winner of the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 5.

Breeder Carlo Vaccarezza said on Thursday that the 5-year-old Little Mike will be ridden by Joe Bravo in the Shoemaker Mile. Trained by Dale Romans for Vaccarezza’s wife, Phyllis, Little Mike won the Woodford Reserve by 2 1-2 lengths in a 12-1 upset.