Matt King Coal will miss Jerome with illness

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Matt King Coal, an impressive maiden winner at Belmont in October, will be forced to skip Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Jerome Stakes after getting sick for the second time in a month.

Trainer Linda Rice said Matt King Coal spiked a fever shortly after getting over a respiratory infection. Rice said she sent the horse to Patty Hogan’s farm in Cream Ridge, N.J., for a four- to six-week vacation.

Matt King Coal, a son of Cool Coal Man, finished third in his debut at Saratoga on the turf in August. On Oct. 3, he got beat a nose by Gift Box while finishing 18 lengths clear of the rest of the field in an off-the-turf maiden race at Belmont Park. Matt King Coal came back Oct. 29 and won a one-mile maiden race by 5 3/4 lengths, earning a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

Flexibility, the runner-up to Mohaymen in the Nashua and Remsen stakes, heads a field that is expected to include Bird of Trey, Donegal Moon, Let Me Go First, Silent Assassin, Vorticity, and Wychmere. Other possibles include In Equality and Mo for the Money.

Entries for the Jerome are to be taken Wednesday.