Catch a Flight, Twentytwentyvision get time off after injuries

ARCADIA, Calif. – The older horses Catch a Flight and Twentytwentyvision will be sidelined this fall after suffering recent injuries.

Catch a Flight underwent nuclear scan tests earlier this week that revealed a developing injury to a condylar bone that will require “a few months off,” trainer Richard Mandella said.

Twentytwentyvision is recovering from a bizarre incident Sunday in which he got his face stuck in the front of a gate and suffered a severe lip injury that required more than an hour of stitches to mend.

Catch a Flight was an intended starter in the $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita but was not entered when unsoundness was detected. After a set of X-rays failed to reveal the injury, a more detailed nuclear scan test revealed weakness in a condylar bone, Mandella said.

“We were pretty lucky to find it,” Mandella said. “We dodged a bullet.”

Catch a Flight won the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar in July and was second to stablemate Beholder in the $1,001,250 Pacific Classic there Aug. 22.

Twentytwentyvision, who was second in the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes on turf at Del Mar in July, was in the gate for the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile at Del Mar last Sunday when he got his face stuck in the front of the stall, Mandella said. The race was delayed for a few minutes before Twentytwentyvision was freed, but during the incident the 4-year-old gelding suffered a lip injury when he jerked his head.

“He hit the gate and stuck his mouth between the little bars,” Mandella said. “When he pulled it off, he nearly ripped his bottom lip off. He could have broken his jaw.”

Mandella said that veterinarian Todd Brokken spent more than an hour stitching Twentytwentyvision’s lip late Sunday afternoon. The gelding lost a tooth in the incident. Twentytwentyvision will be given a rest for several weeks.

“I believe he’ll be fine,” Mandella said. “He’ll need some rest, but that’s okay. We can have him back for next year. He’s in good shape and maturing. There’s a lot to hope for.”