Dry Martini out with chip

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Dry Martini, the multiple graded stakes-winning gelding who finished second in the Donn Handicap last month, has had a chip taken out of an ankle and will be out until the summer.

Dry Martini had the chip taken out on March 8 and is recuperating on a farm in Ocala. The gelding, whose most significant victory came in last year's Grade 2 Suburban Handicap, will need to walk for at least a month before resuming light training.

Robin Smullen, the assistant to trainer Barclay Tagg, said she hopes Dry Martini could make it back late in the Belmont summer meet, with the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park a potential goal.

Tuvia's Force to have surgery

Trainer Nick Zito reported that Tuvia's Force, one of his many top 3-year-old prospects stabled in south Florida this winter, suffered a chip in his left knee during the running of Saturday's Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby. Tuvia's Force, a son of Mineshaft, finished seventh, beaten just under 10 lengths, at Tampa.

Tuvia's Force was shipped Wednesday to Kentucky, where Dr. Larry Bramlage will perform surgery, Zito said.

"I've been very high on this horse all along," Zito said on Wednesday.

w My Princess Jess, the multiple-stakes-winning turf mare, worked four furlongs in 48.60 seconds Wednesday morning at Gulfstream. She is being pointed to the Grade 3, $100,000 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont on May 1. My Princess Jess won the Beaugay to begin her 4-year-old season.

- additional reporting by Mike Welsch