Filly and Mare Turf: Communique out with foot injury

A foot abscess will keep Communique from starting in Friday's $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita, trainer Rusty Arnold said on Monday.

The injury was diagnosed on Monday at Arnold's stable at Keeneland. Communique was scheduled to be flown to California on Tuesday, but Arnold said time ran out to treat the foot and see how it responded before flight time.

"We didn't feel like we had a chance to have her sound by putting her on a plane at 7 a.m. [Tuesday] morning," he said. "She had a pulse and was not sound. We had to remove her shoe. She had an abscess in one quarter."

Owned by breeder G. Watts Humphrey, Communique, 4, has won 4 of 17 starts and $557,634. The winner of two Grade 3 stakes at Arlington Park and Keeneland earlier this year, Communique was second in the Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes at Arlington Park in August and third in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont Park on Sept. 27.

Arnold said that Communique will remain in training next year and might start one more time this season, depending on how the foot responds to treatment.

"We want to see how she does in the next couple of weeks," he said.

The absence of Communique leaves the Filly and Mare Turf with a probable field of 10 - Dynaforce, Folk Opera, Forever Together, Halfway to Heaven, Mauralakana, Pure Clan, Sealy Hill, Vacare, Visit, and Wait a While.