Defending champ Kinsale King scratched from Golden Shaheen

Kinsale King has been scratched from the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen, a race he won last year, because of swelling in his right foreleg.

“He had some kind of reaction to something,” said trainer Carl O’Callaghan. “His leg blew up.”

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O’Callaghan said he noticed the swelling on Saturday morning. He took the horse to the track to jog, something O’Callaghan said he wouldn’t normally do on race-day, and found Kinsale King’s lower leg still quite inflamed when the horse’s bandages were removed once he returned to the quarantine barn.

“We’ll just do the right thing for him, get him back to America,” O’Callaghan said.

Kinsale King would have been one of the favorites for the Shaheen, which now will go with a field of nine runners.