Domestic Spending, Jack Christopher will take time off
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Domestic Spending and Jack Christopher, the two Chad Brown-trained horses who were scratched out of their respective Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar, will both get extended time off, Brown said Sunday.
Domestic Spending, who was scratched out of the Breeders’ Cup Turf with inflammation in a front leg, will be out of training for a minimum of three months.
“Unfortunately, he suffered a suspensory ligament injury while galloping at Del Mar,” Brown said.
Since Domestic Spending is a gelding, Brown said he would be given all the time he needs to try a comeback in 2022 at age 5. At 4, Domestic Spending won two Grade 1 stakes - a dead-heat win with Colonel Liam in the Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, and the Manhattan at Belmont - before finishing second in the Mister D Stakes in August.
Meanwhile, Brown said Jack Christopher will be out of training for six to eight weeks due to a knee issue that forced him to be scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Jack Christopher, winner of both of his starts including the Grade 1 Champagne, is being rested in Kentucky and will likely join Brown after the new year at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida.
Shipsational to winter at Tampa
Shipsational, the New York-bred 2-year-old who won both the Bertram F. Bongard and Sleepy Hollow Stakes at Belmont Park, will use the Tampa Bay Downs path to attempt to make the Kentucky Derby, trainer Ed Barker said over the weekend.
Barker said Shipsational, one of five horses he intends to have stabled at the Oldsmar, Fla., track, will point to the $250,000 Sam. F. Davis on Feb. 5, and then hopefully to the Tampa Bay Derby on March 12. Provided all goes well in those spots, both run at 1 1/16 miles, Barker said Shipsational, a son of Midshipman, could return to New York for the Wood Memorial, presumably scheduled for April 9.
“I don’t want to train him in this weather, he’s too good a horse,” Barker said. “These [Northeast] tracks can get bad."
Speaking of Tampa’s two stakes, “that might be the easier route,” Barker said.
Shipsational is having “an easy 60 days” said Barker, who plans to send Shipsational to Tampa at the end of November.
Shipsational went 3 for 4 in his 2-year-old year and earned a 91 Beyer for his victory in the one-mile Sleepy Hollow Stakes.