Little Mike won't race again until 2015

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Little Mike, who has started just once in 2014, will not race again this year, owner-trainer Carlo Vaccarezza said on Thursday.

Little Mike, winner of the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Turf, cruised to an easy victory in the Flying Pidgeon overnight stakes here at Gulfstream Park on May 17 in his first start since closing out his 2013 campaign with a ninth-place finish in the Honk Kong Cup. He has been stabled at Gulfstream throughout the summer, but nagging foot issues have kept him out of training for much of that time.

“I’m just going to point him to 2015 … the Gulfstream Park Handicap, the Woodford, the Arlington Million … go the same route as we did a few years ago,” said Vaccarezza. “He developed a problem with his feet coming back from Hong Kong and we never got it right. I rushed him just a little bit to get him to run in the Flying Pidgeon and even though he won the race, he came back with foot issues again. So I decided to just take my time, to pamper him, and I think he will come back bigger and stronger than ever in 2015.”

Vaccarezza said Little Mike could start back walking under tack as early as next week and resume regular training again in October.

Little Mike has won 14 of 29 career starts with earnings of more than $3.5 million. A 7-year-old gelded son of Spanish Steps, Little Mike was a Grade 1 winner in 2013, capturing the Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont Park by a nose over Big Blue Kitten. He finished seventh in defense of his Breeders’ Cup Turf title five weeks later at Santa Anita.