Calculator leaves it all on the track in comeback

ARCADIA, Calif. – Calculator, a Grade 3 stakes winner in 2015, ended a 13-month layoff due to injury with a come-from-behind win in an optional claimer at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Saturday.

The win was impressive considering what Calculator left behind on the racetrack, trainer Peter Miller said on Sunday.

“He threw a shoe and grabbed a quarter,” Miller said.

Calculator, the even-money favorite, broke slowly in the optional claimer and rallied five wide on the backstretch before taking the lead on the turn. He led by a length with a furlong remaining and won by a neck over 6-1 Fusaichi Samurai.

“He was five wide on a speed-favoring track, and he still won,” Miller said. “I didn’t have him fully cranked.”

Miller said he is planning to start Calculator in the $300,000 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs on March 12.

“I think the San Carlos makes sense,” Miller said.

Calculator won the Grade 3 Sham Stakes in January 2015 but then suffered a nondisplaced condylar fracture. The injury required surgery to insert stabilizing screws, Miller said.

The injury cost Calculator a chance to start in the 2015 Triple Crown races.

“It was disappointing,” Miller said of the injury. “I was doubtful whether he could come back.”

Calculator has won 2 of 6 starts and $238,300. In September 2014, Calculator was second in consecutive Grade 1 stakes to American Pharoah – the Del Mar Futurity and FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita.

“We know how good American Pharoah was, and he ran second to him twice,” Miller said.