Grace Hall, My Wandy's Girl to miss Ballerina

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Graded stakes winners Grace Hall and My Wandy’s Girl, who were expected to run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga, will miss the race due to physical issues. The racing careers of both are also in question.

Grace Hall, the winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway here as a 2-year-old, injured a foot in a workout over the Oklahoma training track Aug. 11. According to trainer Bill Mott, Grace Hall was galloping out after the work when she shied from horses working on the Oklahoma turf course, which is slightly above the dirt course.

Grace Hall, 5, was away from the races for more than a year due to a broken coffin bone in her right front foot sustained in the 2013 Apple Blossom. Mott said “it’d be a little premature to say” whether Grace Hall’s racing career is over.

She has won 6 of 16 starts, including four graded stakes, and earned $1,546,360. She is owned by John Clay’s Alpha Delta Stables, which purchased her for $3.2 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale following her 3-year-old season.

Meanwhile, My Wandy’s Girl likely will not race again. Trainer Mike Hushion said he needs to stop on the filly and won’t have time to have her ready to run before she is cataloged to sell this November.

“I haven’t been happy with the way she’s been training,” Hushion said.

It was not clear whether My Wandy’s Girl would sell as a broodmare prospect or a racing prospect.

My Wandy’s Girl, a 5-year-old daughter of Flower Alley who began her career in Puerto Rico, won 15 of 25 starts, including the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel Park this year.

Even with the defections of Grace Hall and My Wandy’s Girl, the Ballerina was still expected to draw a large field when entries were to be taken Wednesday. Expected to run are Artemis Agrotera, Better Lucky, Geeky Gorgeous, Hot Stones, Kipling’s Joy, La Verdad, My Miss Aurelia, Voodoo Tales, and Willet.

◗ Amira’s Prince, who was vanned off after finishing fifth in Sunday’s Grade 1 Sword Dancer, has a soft-tissue injury, according to his trainer, Mott. Amira’s Prince, a 5-year-old Irish-bred son of Teofilo, has a record of 5 wins from 15 starts and won the Mervin Muniz and Mac Diarmida, both Grade 2 stakes, in 2013.