El Kabeir to get a break at KESMARC

El Kabeir, the three-time graded stakes winner who was scratched from Saturday’s Kentucky Derby due to a foot issue, will be freshened and pointed to a summer campaign, trainer John Terranova said Monday.

El Kabeir left Churchill Downs on Sunday and vanned to the Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center in Versailles, Ky., where he will stay for several weeks, Terranova said.

Terranova noted that KESMARC had a saltwater spa that will help El Kabeir with his foot issue, which Terranova said was akin to a bruise, though the horse was sound on Saturday morning. Terranova said he had a quarter of the shoe removed from El Kabeir, which alleviated pressure from the inside quarter of the foot.

“You don’t know if something was in there brewing for a long time and the van ride shipping down there shook things up,” Terranova said Monday at Belmont. “Changing tracks, sometimes that’s all it takes. We had a lot of that this winter here with other horses.”

Terranova said that El Kabeir would likely remain at KESMARC for a month before returning to him. The idea would be to point to a summer campaign at Saratoga where El Kabeir won a seven-furlong maiden race by 10 3/4 lengths. A race like the Grade 1 King’s Bishop could be a goal for El Kabeir.

“This is the first chance we’ve had for a break, and it’s probably a smart thing to take full advantage of it,” Terranova said. “I think he’s going to come back bigger and stronger than ever with a little bit of a freshening. I know he’s a Grade 1 horse. I think he’ll take one down at some point.”

Winner of the Grade 3 Gotham and third in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial, El Kabeir is owned by Ahmed Zayat, who also owns Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah.