Firing Line to get rest of year off

ARCADIA, Calif. – Kentucky Derby runner-up Firing Line has an injury that will require him to take the rest of the year off, but the plan is to race him next year at age 4, trainer Simon Callaghan said Wednesday at Santa Anita.

Although Callaghan declined to specify the nature of the injury, he said Firing Line will not require surgery and will be turned out at a farm. He suggested that Firing Line was injured in his last race, the Preakness Stakes on May 16 at Pimlico, when he stumbled at the start.

“That and a bad track,” Callaghan said, referring to the sloppy surface over which the race was run.

“We’ve got to give him time, but long term, he’ll be fine,” said Callaghan, who added that the early 2016 goal for Firing Line will be the Dubai World Cup. “I’d like to get a prep or two into him before that.”

Firing Line, a colt by Line of David, won the Sunland Derby this year. In addition to the Kentucky Derby, he was second last year in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity, in which he was beaten by Dortmund. Firing Line also lost a close call to Dortmund in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita in February.

Overall, Firing Line has won twice in seven starts, with four second-place finishes. The Preakness, in which he finished seventh, is the only race in which he has finished out of the exacta. Firing Line is owned by Arnold Zetcher.

Dortmund, who also has been idle since the Preakness, in which he finished fourth, is in light training at Santa Anita, but no specific race has been picked out for his next start, trainer Bob Baffert said Wednesday.

Dortmund has had two works since the Preakness but none since going a half-mile in 47.40 seconds June 21 at Santa Anita.

** Triple Crown winner American Pharoah jogged a mile Wednesday at Santa Anita, his first day back at the track following a workout Monday. He is scheduled to have one more workout this weekend at Santa Anita before heading early next week to Del Mar, where he will have his final workouts in advance of the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Aug. 2. The Haskell will be his first start since completing the Triple Crown sweep with a win in the Belmont Stakes.