Kimari ‘not quite right,' held out of Honorable Miss
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Kimari, the Grade 1 Madison Stakes winner, was held out of a planned start in next Wednesday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Honorable Miss Handicap when entries were taken Friday.
Trainer Wesley Ward said he felt the 4-year-old filly wasn’t 100 percent this week. Though a complete evaluation by Dr. Luis Castro, complete with X-rays and ultrasounds, showed no physical issues, Ward said he wasn’t comfortable entering Kimari in the six-furlong race.
“Visually, she’s not quite right,” Ward said. “When you’re thinking about [running] a filly of this quality, you want her absolutely breathing fire. The owner, Dave Mowat, was very, very nice about it. He said no worries, even though he had his trip here already planned.”
Ward said he would not think about a possible start in the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 28, or any race for that matter, until he’s satisfied with how the filly is training.
With Kimari’s defection, the Honorable Miss field swelled to nine. From the rail out, the field is: Ain’t No Elmers, Reagan’s Edge, Sadie Lady, Lake Avenue, Truth Hurts, Don’t Call Me Mary, Honey I’m Good, Miss Mosaic, and Bell’s the One.
Conversely, Ward was very happy with the way Bound for Nowhere breezed on the Oklahoma turf course on Friday morning in preparation for the Grade 3, $200,000 Troy Stakes on Aug. 6. Bound for Nowhere, third as the favorite in the Grade 1 Jaipur last out, worked five furlongs in 59.38 seconds, starting one length behind the multiple stakes-winning filly Wink and finishing about three-quarters in front at the wire.
“I’m excited about that one,” Ward said. “Right at the end of a work, for almost his whole life, he gets outworked. Today, he was pricking his ears at the end. I was really happy with that guy.”