Wickedly Perfect out of Breeders' Cup with bone chip

Wickedly Perfect, the winner of Friday’s Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland, will miss the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5 because of a bone chip in a knee, trainer Doug O’Neill said.

The diagnosis was made Saturday morning, O’Neill said. Wickedly Perfect would have been among the leading contenders for the BC Juvenile Fillies.

“She had a little heat in a left knee,” O’Neill said. “We did X-rays and she has a chip.”

After consulting with veterinarian Mark Cheney in Kentucky and Joe Dowd in California, O’Neill said Wickedly Perfect will undergo surgery on Monday to have the bone chip removed. The operation will be conducted by Dr. Larry Bramlage in Kentucky.

Owned by a partnership, Wickedly Perfect has won 3 of 5 starts and $404,600. Earlier this year in California, Wickedly Perfect won a maiden race at Hollywood Park and the Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar and finished second in the Grade 1 Darley Debutante at Del Mar.

O’Neill said veterinarians have told him that Wickedly Perfect could return to training within a couple of months, making a spring campaign possible.

“It’s a bummer because we’ll miss the Breeders’ Cup, but the prognosis is 100 percent,” he said.