Grade 1 winner Nutella Fella sidelined again

Nutella Fella, last year’s Grade 1 Hopeful winner, who ran third in his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens last month, is sidelined again due to an ankle issue, trainer Gary Contessa said Sunday.

Contessa said Nutella Fella had some filling in his left hind ankle, the same ankle he injured last fall which forced him to miss the remainder of the year following his upset Hopeful score. A subsequent PET scan of the area showed some bone bruising in his left hind leg.

Contessa said Nutella Fella is at Dr. Jerry Bilinksi’s Waldorf Farm in upstate New York, getting some turn-out time.

Nutella Fella won last year’s Hopeful at 54-1. In the Woody Stephens he was 20-1 and finished third, 1 1/4 lengths behind Book’em Danno. Contessa was pointing Nutella Fella to last weekend’s Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes, won by Domestic Product.

“After that last race, I thought I was sitting in a golden spot,” Contessa said.

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