Coal Front has chance to return to racing next year

ELMONT, N.Y. - Coal Front emerged from his victory in Saturday’s Grade 3 Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx Racing with a non-displaced condylar fracture in his right foreleg, leaving his racing future uncertain.

Dr. Patty Hogan operated on Coal Front Monday at her clinic in Cream Ridge, N.J., inserting two screws to stabilize the injury, according to John Panagot, racing manager for Robert LaPenta, who owns Coal Front with Sol Kumin’s Head of Plains Partners.

Panagot said it is likely that Coal Front would return to racing next year.

“We have every intention of bringing him back,” Panagot said. “It’s a very good prognosis. We have some unfinished business. As long as he looks good and is feeling good, we’re going to bring him back.”

Before the operation, trainer Todd Pletcher sounded optimistic that Coal Front could return to racing in 2018.

“Assuming it compresses well, there’s a good chance he’ll come back 100 percent,” Pletcher said. “We’ll know more tomorrow, but I’m optimistic he’s going to be back.”

As a 2-year-old Coal Front had sustained a condylar fracture in his left foreleg, which delayed him from getting started until April of this year.

Coal Front, a son of Stay Thirsty, won his debut at Keeneland in April and a first-level allowance race at Belmont in June. He won the Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga in July before finishing a disappointing fifth in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop.

Saturday, at Parx, Coal Front held off American Pastime to win the Gallant Bob by a half-length. He ran six furlongs in 1:08.74 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 107.

_ additional reporting by Mike Welsch