Hit the Road to miss Shoemaker Mile with muscle strain

Hit the Road, the winner of two graded stakes on turf at Santa Anita earlier this year, will miss the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on May 31 because of a muscle strain, trainer Dan Blacker said.

A 4-year-old colt, Hit the Road will be pointed for the Del Mar summer meeting, and Grade 2 turf races such as the $250,000 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on July 24, and $300,000 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 21.

Hit the Road was fifth in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland on April 9 as the 5-2 favorite. The injury was diagnosed after that race.

“He’s not going to be ready for the Shoemaker,” Blacker said. “It’s a bit of a disappointment.

“He came out of the race at Keeneland with a bit of a muscle strain in a hind end. He was a little tight out of the race. It’s not a bad injury. We’ve had to back off.”

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“We’ll let him build himself up,” he said. “We’ve still got our fingers crossed that the Breeders’ Cup will be the goal.”

Hit the Road won the first Grade 1 of his career in the $300,000 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita on March 6, his fourth stakes win. Hit the Road has won 6 of 10 starts and earned $503,751.

The field for the Shoemaker is expected to include Smooth Like Strait and Count Again, third and fourth, respectively, in the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 1, and Whisper Not, the winner of the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields on April 24.