Ed Burke winner Chance to Excel has knee chip

Chance to Excel, winner of the $1.1 million Ed Burke Million Futurity on Sunday at Los Alamitos, has been sidelined after he was diagnosed with a bone chip in a knee, trainer Monty Arrossa said Wednesday.

Chance to Excel is scheduled to undergo surgery Saturday to have the bone chip removed. The injury is expected to keep Chance to Excel from starting in the two major futurities at Los Alamitos in the autumn – the Golden State Million on Nov. 1 and the Los Alamitos Two Million on Dec. 13.

Noted veterinarian C. Wayne McIlwraith is scheduled to conduct the operation, Arrossa said.

“We’ll play it by ear on what he recommends,” Arrossa said of McIlwraith’s opinion.

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Owned by Sammy Valeriano, Chance to Excel has won 3 of 4 starts and earned $458,515. The Ed Burke Million Futurity was his third consecutive win, preceded by a maiden race and a time trial for the Ed Burke.

Pyromancer makes first start

The impeccably bred Pyromancer will have her career debut in a 300-yard maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies in Saturday’s seventh race at Los Alamitos.

Pyromancer, trained by Chris O’Dell for the Parsons Family Limited Partnership, is by top stallion Walk Thru Fire and is out of Terrific Energy, winner of the Charger Bar and Mildred Vessels handicaps at Los Alamitos in 2009.

Terrific Energy is the dam of such noted runners as Terrific Temper, who was second in the Ed Burke on Sunday; Terrific First Down, who won the 2019 La Primera Del Ano Derby at Los Alamitos; and Thermonuclear Energy, who won the 2019 Charger Bar.

Pyromancer and Terrific Temper are half-sisters. They are two of the three 2-year-olds out of Terrific Energy racing this year. Dynastic Energy, a gelding, finished last of six in his debut June 14 after hesitating at the start.

Quarter Horse mares can be bred via embryo transfer, allowing for the registration of multiple foals in the same year.

Pyromancer has drawn the outside post in a field of six and will be ridden by Jose Nicasio, who won the Ed Burke on Chance to Excel.

My Racy Eagle, a troubled fifth in a division of the Ed Burke trials on June 7, is Pyromancer’s leading rival.

First post time for the Los Alamitos evening program is 6 p.m. Pacific. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.