Giant Expectations injured, will miss five or six weeks

ARCADIA, Calif. – Giant Expectations, a winner of two graded stakes in the last year, has been taken out of training for the spring with soundness issues in his hind end.

Trainer Peter Eurton said on Friday that Giant Expectations will miss five or six weeks of training. The setback will prevent Giant Expectations from starting in two leading races for older horses on dirt at Santa Anita – the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on April 28 and the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 26.

Eurton said X-rays were negative, but a recent nuclear scan led to some concern about the 5-year-old horse’s hind end.

“We caught something early,” he said. “He deserves a little break.

“Hopefully, we’ll get him ready for the second half of Del Mar.”

Giant Expectations has won 4 of 15 starts, all for a partnership that includes Ryan Exline, Justin Border, Dan Gatto, and Garrett Zubok. Giant Expectations was fourth in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 10 in his last start.

Giant Expectations won the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar last summer and the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes at 1 1/8 miles here last December. Giant Expectations was ninth in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 27.

The $200,000 Californian Stakes could include Full of Luck, a seven-time stakes winner in Chile in 2016 and 2017. He was 11th in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile on turf at Golden Gate Fields as the 2-1 favorite in his U.S. debut on March 31.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Full of Luck has won 8 of 15 starts. The Californian would be his first start on dirt.

The Californian is the richest of three graded stakes on the final weekend of April at Santa Anita. The April 28 program includes the Grade 3 Santa Barbara Stakes, a $100,000 race for fillies and mares at 1 1/2 miles on turf. The leading race on April 29 is the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes, a $100,000 race on the hillside turf course.