Dance Away Capote out of Oaks

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Dance Away Capote, one of nine 3-year-old fillies entered for Friday's Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, was scratched from the race early Thursday after trainer H. Graham Motion discovered she had a temperature of 103 when he arrived at the barn that morning.

"We took her temperature several times to make sure it was correct," said a dejected Motion. "It's hard to believe because she had been doing so well here this week. We sent out some bloodwork to be checked but I guess she just came down with a virus. Unfortunately with that kind of temperature we couldn't even wait around until this afternoon to see if she might recover. We had to treat her quickly."

Dance Away Capote was coming into the Oaks off a four length victory in Turfway Park's Bourbenette Stakes on March 26.

"I guess it looks like Murphy's Law," said Motion who won the 2004 Breeders' Cup Turf with Better Talk Now. "This is the most disappointing thing that's ever happened to me in the game. She was coming up to the race really well and I thought she had a big chance in the Oaks."