New York-bred millionaire Weekend Hideaway retired at 8

ELMONT, N.Y. – Weekend Hideaway, a New York-bred sprinter who won stakes races in seven consecutive years, has been retired from racing after being injured in his most recent workout, trainer Phil Serpe said Wednesday.

Serpe said Weekend Hideaway sustained a fracture of the inside sesamoid in a front leg. Weekend Hideaway had worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 on Saturday over Belmont’s main track.

“We could operate on him and put a screw in him and all that, but at 8 years old, we decided it was just best to retire him,” said Serpe, who trained Weekend Hideaway for Michael Hoffman’s Red and Black Stable.

Weekend Hideaway, a son of Speightstown, began his career in July 2012. After finishing second in his debut at Saratoga, he won a maiden race and the David Stakes at the Spa before completing his juvenile campaign with a victory in the Bertram F. Bongard Stakes.

Weekend Hideaway would go on to win stakes at ages 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. He won two runnings of the John Morrissey Stakes at Saratoga, including the most recent running on July 26 at odds of 10-1. He stretched out to a mile to win the Commentator Stakes at Belmont twice, including a nose decision over Diversify in 2017.

Though he went winless in nine graded stakes tries, he did win the Sunshine Millions Sprint, a race restricted to horses bred in Florida, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania, in 2015 at Gulfstream Park. Serpe said he and Hoffman are exploring the potential of standing Weekend Hideaway as a stallion.

“It’s sad, but on the other hand, I am really, really happy that I’ll be able to walk him out of here in one piece,” Serpe said. “Too many of them don’t have that luxury.”

Weekend Hideaway retires with a record of 13-7-10 from 49 starts and career earnings of $1,144,922.