East Avenue's poor performance remains a mystery
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For the second race in a row, East Avenue’s form went south. But unlike the colt’s ninth-place finish as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, where a stumbling start compromised him, East Avenue’s distant 10th as the 4-5 favorite in the Risen Star this past Saturday has his connections befuddled.
East Avenue, easy winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity in October, broke alertly under Tyler Gaffalione in the Risen Star and took up a favorable position racing second, a couple lengths behind the fast pace set by Magnitude. Magnitude – who is off the Kentucky Derby trail with an ankle injury - kept going, winning by nearly 10 lengths, but East Avenue threw in the towel on the far turn.
“I don’t have an explanation,” trainer Brendan Walsh said Tuesday. “Nothing physically that we can find. Just a bunch of maybes. Maybe he got tired, maybe he didn’t handle the racetrack. It was a weird race with a weird bias. But he was in a good spot. Tyler gave him a perfect trip. Could be a bunch of stuff: First race after a long layoff off a bad experience in California.”
Walsh, who trains East Avenue for the colt’s breeder, Godolphin, said East Avenue would adhere to a regular post-race training schedule this week, though no plans have been set regarding his next start.
“The only way we can find anything out is to go forward with the horse, get him back in training and tweak a few things. I don’t see any reason not to go on with him. It seemed like he was training fantastic going into the race,” Walsh said. “We just have a bunch of stuff to figure out with him and hope that we can.”
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