Injury threatens Misconnect's career

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The racing future of Misconnect is in doubt after the ridgling suffered a fractured sesamoid to his left foreleg last month, trainer Bruce Levine said Monday.

Misconnect had won the Grade 3 General George Handicap at Laurel in February and was training for a start in the Grade 1 Carter on April 4 when he suffered the injury during a workout at Belmont Park on March 29.

Misconnect has undergone surgery, but his prognosis for a return to racing is not very good.

“He might have won the Carter,” Levine said Monday. “He was a really nice horse. Tough, game.”

Misconnect, a son of Unbridled’s Song owned by Mike Repole, began his career with trainer Todd Pletcher, for whom he won 2 of 5 starts. Moved to Levine last fall, Misconnect won a second-level allowance race before running third in the Queens County and fourth in the Jazil Stakes, both to Micromanage, a horse trained by Pletcher and owned by Repole.

Levine cut Misconnect back in distance to seven furlongs in the General George and he got up by a neck over Cutty Shark.

Levine said Misconnect is convalescing in south Florida and that a determination on his future would be made later this year.