Mindframe sent to farm with bone bruising
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mindframe, runner-up in the Belmont Stakes and Haskell, will be sidelined for the rest of the summer and early fall due to bone bruising, co-owner Mike Repole said Wednesday.
Additionally, Repole also said he is now leaning toward running Fierceness, the Grade 2 Jim Dandy winner, in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes here on Aug. 24.
Mindframe, owned by Repole and Vinnie and Teresa Viola’s St. Elias Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher, was sent earlier this week to Dr. John Madison in Ocala, Fla., where he was diagnosed with bone bruising. He is now convalescing on a farm in Ocala, Repole said.
“He’s clear go to back into training in 60 days. If Todd and I want to give him 90 days we can do that,” Repole said. “In all honesty, we were probably skipping the Travers anyway with him. He’s had four incredible races in about 3 1/2 months.”
Repole said a potential scenario for Mindframe would be a race in December as a stepping-stone to Gulfstream Park’s Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup, which is typically run in late January.
Mindframe, a son of Constitution, burst onto the scene with a powerful 13 3/4-length debut victory at Gulfstream on March 30, the same day his stablemate Fierceness won the Grade 1 Florida Derby by a record-setting 13 1/2 lengths.
In his second start, on the May 4 Kentucky Derby card at Churchill Downs, Mindframe won a first-level allowance by 7 1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs.
Making just his third career start in the Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga, Mindframe actually made the lead in upper stretch over Dornoch before veering out from jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.’s left-handed whip. He was beaten a half-length by Dornoch while one length in front of race favorite Sierra Leone.
Mindframe took on Dornoch again in the Haskell and headed him at the quarter pole only to be beaten 1 3/4 lengths.
Meanwhile, after saying that the Travers would be unlikely for Fierceness because it would mean running back in four weeks following a big effort, Repole said Wednesday that he and Pletcher are likely to run him in the Travers and that will give him 10 weeks to the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2 at Del Mar.
Noting the tendency of Fierceness to follow a good race with a bad one, Repole said, “We’re hoping to run fourth beaten 12 [in the Travers] and then win the Classic by seven lengths. Seriously, at the end of the day if he runs fourth or if he wins it wouldn’t shock us.”
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