Aqueduct: Summer Applause likely done racing
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The multiple graded stakes winner Summer Applause, who was scratched from last Saturday’s Grade 2 Top Flight after suffering a minor injury to her hock in her stall at Aqueduct, will most likely be retired and bred, according to trainer Chad Brown.
Brown said the injury wasn’t as significant as its timing. The Top Flight, which Summer Applause won last year, was to help determine whether Summer Applause would continue to race throughout her 5-year-old season or be bred in the spring.
“With her first start now being delayed until right in the middle of the breeding season, it’s a little bit risky considering how much they spent for her as a broodmare,” said Brown, who said Thursday that Summer Applause was sent to Christoph Berglar’s Stonereath Stud in Kentucky.
Berglar purchased Summer Applause for $1.3 million at the Fasig-Tipton sale last November, a few days after she finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Summer Applause, a daughter of Harlan’s Holiday, won 6 of 15 starts including the Grade 2 Top Flight, Grade 3 Allaire DuPont Distaff, and, as a 3-year-old, the Grade 3 Rachel Alexandra. Summer Applause finished second in the Grade 1 Spinster last fall at Keeneland. She earned $814,906.