Kentucky Oaks: Take Charge Milady’s status in doubt with foot abscess
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Take Charge Milady's status for next week's Kentucky Oaks is in doubt as the filly's team deals with a foot abscess she recently developed.
"We don't know if we have enough time to get that together - there's a chance she could miss the race," trainer Kenny McPeek said Saturday morning after the filly turned in a routine gallop. "It's minor, but at the same time, timing's a little bit tricky. At this point, we're going to enter her, and we're going to see what kind of week we have."
Entries for the May 2 Oaks were taken Saturday morning, with post positions to be drawn later in the evening.
Abscesses are considered a routine equestrian problem which merely take time and management to resolve, and horses may continue to move soundly throughout treatment depending on where the spot is located. However, McPeek said Take Charge Milady’s abscess in the right front foot is in the coronet band at the top of the hoof, which he described as "a tricky spot." The filly's foot has been soaked to help draw out the abscess, and is being wrapped with Animalintex poultice pads, which also help draw infection out.
Take Charge Milady had been entered in the Grade 2 Fantasy on March 29 at Oaklawn, but was scratched from that race when a quarter crack required a shoeing adjustment and that crack to be stitched up.
"We don't know if they're together, but more than likely, there is some correlation between the two," McPeek said of the quarter crack and the abscess.
Take Charge Milady showed no ill effects from that hiccup, firing a bullet work before shipping to Kentucky to reroute to the Grade 1 Ashland on April 7 at Keeneland. She finished an inside-closing second to La Cara, and has since worked a bullet at Churchill.
“She ran a really good race – a race that justifies her being a Kentucky Oaks filly,” McPeek said of the Ashland. “But the little abscess, timing’s really bad. … She worked good this morning, she gallops good, but that little abscess wants to irritate her … We’ve just got to see if we can get her 100 percent by next weekend.”
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