Minor training setback unlikely to keep Imperial Hint out of Vanderbilt

Imperial Hint, winner of the Grade 2 True North Stakes at Belmont Park in June, had a minor training setback last week but is still on track to make his next start in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga on July 28.

According to trainer Luis Carvajal Jr., Imperial Hint lost a hind shoe during his half-mile bullet workout at Parx on July 6. Although he initially appeared fine, the foot became sensitive.

"Two days later he was getting better, but they were doing some construction during the afternoon at the barn next to me and the horses became upset and his bandage came off, slipped up his leg, and kind of blistered him," Carvajal said Tuesday. "We missed five days of training but the shoe is back on. I jogged him a few days and gave him a nice, easy gallop this morning."

Carvajal said he thinks Imperial Hint will be ready to work in about five days. If he does, and comes out of it well, he will run in the $350,000 Vanderbilt, a six-furlong race.

"It's just a little hiccup, but if he's not 100 percent and needs more time, we will skip the race," Carvajal said. "There are a lot of races coming up for him."

Imperial Hint, owned by Raymond Mamone, held off Whitmore to win the True North by a neck. The victory was his third in a graded stakes, his first in a Grade 2, and put him over $1 million in earnings. Imperial Hint, the runner-up in last year's Breeders' Cup Sprint and an Eclipse Awards finalist, is now 10 for 16.