Hollywood Park: Weemissfrankie has surgery, will be sidelined four months

Tom Keyser

Weemissfrankie underwent surgery on Sunday Sunday for a nondisplaced condylar fracture.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Weemissfrankie is expected to be sidelined for four months after undergoing surgery Sunday for a nondisplaced condylar fracture detected after a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes.

The operation was conducted Sunday afternoon by prominent veterinarian Dr. C. Wayne McIlwraith at an equine clinic in Cypress, Calif., near Los Alamitos Racecourse. One screw was inserted in Weemissfrankie’s right foreleg to stabilize the injury, trainer Peter Eurton said.

“The surgery went very well,” Eurton said Sunday evening. “The prognosis is excellent. He gave her a four-month prognosis. He said, ‘Do you have any plans for the [Kentucky] Oaks?”

Eurton said that he had no plans to rush Weemissfrankie into the Kentucky Oaks or preps for that race, and is hoping to have the filly back to racing for the second half of 2012.

“I’m optimistic we can have her for Del Mar,” he said of the summertime meeting.

Eurton said that Weemissfrankie will stay at his stable for 30 to 45 days and then continue her recovery on a local farm.

Weemissfrankie was the 4-5 favorite in the Hollywood Starlet. After stumbling at the start, Weemissfrankie was last of six for the first six furlongs and closed to finish 2 3/4 lengths behind race winner Killer Graces. Eurton wondered whether a stumble at the start could have contributed to the injury.

“She wasn’t reaching out completely all the way down the lane,” he said. “Who knows? I’m glad she made it around the track before anything really bad happened.”

Weemissfrankie has won 3 of 5 starts and $559,920. After beating maidens in her debut at Del Mar in July, Weemissfrankie won the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante and Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes before finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.