Empty Tomb dealing with foot abscess

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Empty Tomb was scheduled to return to trainer Robert Falcone’s barn Friday following his last-place finish in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 29.

Though Empty Tomb was an 88-1 longshot in the Pegasus, it didn’t help that he exited the race with a foot issue.

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“He blew an abscess out of his foot,” Falcone said. “I kept him down there a little extra time, pulled his shoes off, trained him a little bit before sending him back.”

Falcone was hoping to run Empty Tomb in the $125,000 Stymie here on Feb. 26, but the foot issue will force him to miss that race. Prior to the Pegasus, Empty Tomb had finished second in the Queens County here on Dec. 19.

Falcone said Maiden Beauty, who won the Bay Ridge Stakes on Dec. 30, will make her next start in the $100,000 Biogio’s Rose for New York-breds on March 6. Falcone thought about running her in an open third-level allowance race scheduled for Thursday, but he was told the filly was not eligible to run under the allowance conditions because of her victory in a restricted stakes. The race did not fill anyway.