Dortmund scratched from Awesome Again, pointed to easier comeback race

Dortmund will be scratched from the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, trainer Art Sherman said Thursday.

The Awesome Again was scheduled to be Dortmund's first race since April 1. He was announced as retired after that race, then put back in training. Dortmund is owned by Kaleem Shah.

"I got to talking it over with Kaleem, and we decided it's an awful lot to ask him to go a mile and an eighth after a long layoff," Sherman said. "I'd like to get an easier spot to come back in."

Sherman said the plan now is to return in the $70,000 Comma to the Top Stakes at one mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 28 as a prep for Del Mar's fall meeting. Dortmund won the Comma to the Top in 2015, when it was known as the Big Bear Stakes.

Dortmund, 5, has won 8 of 16 starts and nearly $2 million. He won the Santa Anita Derby in 2015 and was third in that year's Kentucky Derby to American Pharoah.