Elate ready to return to serious training

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Elate, a 2017 Eclipse Award finalist for top 3-year-old filly, is ready to resume serious training at Payson Park under Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott after a minor setback.

“She popped a splint,” said Walker Hancock, whose family’s Claiborne Farm bred and owns Elate with Adele Dilschneider. “It’s very minor. She’s about to start back again. It was just a little hold-up.”

Elate had two three-furlong breezes in February at Payson, both earning bullets, before Mott had to stop on her. A splint injury typically consists of inflammation in the splint bone, which runs from behind the knee down the cannon bone. Hancock said the splint has been painted with liniment, a common treatment, and surgery was not needed.

Hancock and Mott were hoping to make the Grade 1 La Troienne on the May 4 Kentucky Oaks card at Churchill Downs, but “I don’t know if we can make it now,” Hancock said.

“We’ll move on if we can’t,” Hancock said. “The summer’s very long and we’ve got other races picked out.”

Elate, by Medaglia d’Oro, won the Grade 1 Alabama and Grade 1 Beldame during an outstanding 3-year-old campaign in which she earned $834,325.