Bravazo out of Dubai World Cup with minor knee injury

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Bravazo will miss an intended start in the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 30, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Friday.

Lukas said Bravazo has been diagnosed with “small flakes” in the upper joint of his left knee. The horse shipped early Friday morning from his Oaklawn base to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky. Dr. Larry Bramlage will perform arthroscopic surgery, said Lukas.

“Yesterday, he had a beautiful gallop, but he was a little tender cooling out and we took a picture,” Lukas said Friday.

“Dr. Bramlage has seen the prints and he was very optimistic. He said it’s very favorable on this type of thing.”

Lukas said Bravazo would likely return to his barn at Churchill Downs on June 1.

“I think we’ll have a fresh horse for the fall,” he said. “We’re going to have a good fall campaign.”

A son of Awesome Again, Bravazo is a $2 million earner who races for his breeder, Calumet Farm. He launched his 4-year-old season in January with a fourth-place finish in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park and had been working at Oaklawn toward the Dubai World Cup.

Bravazo won last year’s Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds and went on to run second in the Preakness and Haskell Invitational, third in the Travers and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and second by a neck in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap.

Bravazo would have been the first Dubai World Cup starter for Lukas.

“Maybe next year,” Lukas said. “We’re going to keep him in training. Maybe he’ll go next year.”