Aqueduct: Mean Season out indefinitely with leg injury

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mean Season, who looked to be developing into a top-flight sprinter, will be out indefinitely due to an injury he sustained in winning an allowance race at Aqueduct on Saturday.

According to trainer Bill Mott, Mean Season suffered “an avulsion fracture at the origin of the suspensory” of his left foreleg. That type of injury involves a bone and soft tissue that makes it somewhat tricky to determine how much time off the horse will need.

“I’ve heard three to four months to more than that,” Mott said by phone Monday from Florida. “We’ll start with that. There are no shortcuts that I know of. It’s just a tiny little fragment; it’s not a huge piece.”

Mott said that no surgery is required, just time. The horse eventually will be shipped from New York to Classic Mile, a training center in Ocala, Fla., where he will be under the supervision of former trainer Bill Recio.

Mean Season was pulled up by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. an eighth of a mile past the wire after he dominated a second-level allowance race by 7 1/2 lengths, running six furlongs in 1:09.43. That time was .42 of a second faster than Strapping Groom ran the same distance in winning the Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap on Saturday. Mean Season earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure for that performance.

It was Mean Season’s third win in as many career races. He debuted at Laurel Park in September for trainer Jose Corrales and Ginger Punch Racing. Sent through the Keeneland auction ring in November, he was purchased for $150,000 by Jake Ballis and Miami Heat basketball player Rashard Lewis and turned over to Mott.

Mean Season won a first-level allowance race by eight lengths Dec. 22 before being scratched out of a Jan. 18 allowance race due to a temperature.

“He looked pretty impressive to me,” Mott said about Saturday’s performance. “He looked like he might be pretty special.”