Anothertwistafate staying put at Sunland, for now

Sunland Park Derby runner-up Anothertwistafate will remain at the El Paso, N.M.-area track in light training rather than return to his home base at Golden Gate Fields, where a quarantine has been placed on one of the barns of his trainer.

Blaine Wright, the trainer of the Derby prospect, said on Wednesday morning that Anothertwistafate is not under any travel restrictions despite the Golden Gate quarantine, which was put in place on one of his barns after a 3-year-old filly died over the weekend after displaying symptoms of equine herpesvirus, a highly contagious disease. Anothertwistafate was not housed in the barn where the filly died, Wright said, but rather in one of his two side barns.

“We’re still doing what we’re doing,” Wright said. “We’re still sitting at Sunland Park, and we’re happy to do that for now.”

Anothertwistafate, who won the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate prior to the Sunland Park Derby, has 30 points in the system that determines which 20 horses have preference to start in the Kentucky Derby, good for 12th on the list. He finished second in the Sunland Park Derby to Cutting Humor after making a determined run to the wire.

Wright said that the initial plan for the horse was to train up to the Kentucky Derby unless Anothertwistafate needed more points to earn a spot in the Derby field. He said he would watch the results of this weekend’s prep races and then determine whether Anothertwistafate would target an additional prep race in April, Wright listed the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, then Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, or the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct among the options.

“The horse is doing good,” Wright said. “We’re just going to stay with business as usual. Really from where he is now he’s halfway to Kentucky and Arkansas already, so we have options.”

The quarantine on Wright’s barn is set to remain in place until next Sunday. The horses in the quarantined barn are being allowed to train apart from the general population of horses at Golden Gate, but will not be allowed to race until after the quarantine is lifted. Wright said the horses in his two other barns do not have any restrictions placed on them.

The quarantine was put in place after officials for the California Department of Food and Agriculture conducted a review of the barn on Tuesday. The California Horse Racing Board has said that no other horses have displayed any symptoms of equine herpesvirus, but the horses in the quarantined barn will continue to be monitored for signs of the disease.