Firing Line's comeback postponed, trainer says
DEL MAR, Calif. - Firing Line’s comeback race, originally scheduled for Wednesday at Del Mar, will be postponed, trainer Simon Callaghan said Sunday morning.
“We can’t run Firing Line,” a disappointed Callaghan said after the 2015 Kentucky Derby runner-up returned from a 6 a.m. gallop. “He didn’t travel as good this morning. He seemed a bit quiet, as if he’s looking after himself.”
Callaghan does not believe the setback is severe. “It seems very minor, I’m pretty sure it’s just a pulled muscle,” he said. “He seemed fine warming up, but when we turned around to gallop him, he just wasn’t his usual self, like he was feeling something and looking after himself a little bit.
“I wouldn’t say he was lame, he just wasn’t traveling perfectly behind,” Callaghan said.
Firing Line is entered Wednesday in the first division of the $75,000 Harry F. Brubaker Stakes, race 5, at a mile on dirt. Callaghan said the 4-year-old colt will be scratched and his status determined after a thorough veterinary examination.
Firing Line’s 2014-15 winter-spring campaign established him as one of the country’s top young colts. He ran second in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity in 2014, second in a Grade 3 at Santa Anita in his 2015 debut, won the Grade 3 Sunland Derby by more than 14 lengths and finished a length behind American Pharoah in the Kentucky Derby.
Firing Line, owned by Arnold Zetcher, had an ankle chip removed in summer 2015 after finishing seventh in the Preakness. Although he misfired in his comeback last month at Santa Anita, recent works suggested he would have been a leading contender Wednesday in the Brubaker.
“Everything looked perfect about the race,” Callaghan said, adding Firing Line had been training “lights out.” Callaghan relayed the news to Zetcher on Sunday morning.
A 4-year-old from the first crop sired by Line of David, Firing Line has won two races and $976,000 from eight starts. With the scratch of Firing Line from the Brubaker, the 8-year-old gelding Soi Phet is likely to inherit favoritism in the first division, race 5.
In race 7, second division of the Brubaker at a mile on dirt, comeback Blue Tone and sharp Conquest Cobra are the leading contenders.
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