Mel Stute remains hospitalized, but making progress

Retired trainer Mel Stute is expected to be hospitalized at least through the middle of the week, and perhaps until the weekend, while recovering from a head injury sustained in a fall at his home on Dec. 8.

Gary Stute, the trainer’s son and a trainer himself, said his father is undergoing physical therapy.

“They’ve got him in rehab and trying to strengthen him up,” Gary Stute said on Sunday afternoon. “My sister said he can walk without a walker, but he has trouble getting up.

“He called me three times yesterday so I know he’s bored. They said he could be there for a couple of days or a week.”

Stute, 85, has not had a starter since December 2011 but has maintained a presence as a visitor at the races in Southern California in the last year. He is best known as the trainer of Snow Chief, the winner of the1986 Preakness Stakes and that year’s champion 3-year-old male.