Gabriel Charles takes first steps on comeback trail

ARCADIA, Calif. – The multiple stakes winner Gabriel Charles has returned to trainer Jeff Mullins’s stable at Santa Anita after undergoing surgery for colic in August.

Gabriel Charles, who won the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar in July, has been with Mullins for three weeks and is being walked daily.

Gabriel Charles was rushed to a San Diego-area veterinary clinic Aug. 8 to undergo emergency surgery for colic. He was kept at the clinic until early September, when he was sent to Mullins.

Owned by Michael House and Sam Britt, Gabriel Charles has won 4 of 11 starts and earned $584,400. He won the 2013 Del Mar Derby and missed 2014 because of a tendon injury.

Mullins said Gabriel Charles is not likely to resume racing until 2016.

“We’ve got to get him fit on that tendon, and his stomach was opened up,” Mullins said. “It will be one step at a time.”