Joking moving from clinic to farm
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Joking, the Grade 1 Vosburgh winner who was scratched from last November’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint due to illness, was expected to leave a Southern California clinic this weekend and get turned out on a California farm.
Joking suffered from two bouts of pneumonia that have forced him to remain at the Chino Valley Equine Hospital in Chino Hills for two months.
Charlton Baker, the owner and trainer of Joking, said the 8-year-old gelding has been off medication for more than a week. Baker said he is planning to have Joking spend three weeks to a month at a Southern California farm before shipping him back to New York.
Baker said he hasn’t given any thought to whether Joking will race again.
“I’m not even worried about that part of it,” Baker said. “We’ll go step by step. The main thing is for him to be safe.”
Joking has won 10 of 39 starts. He went 4 for 5 in 2016, with victories in the True North and Vosburgh.