Normandy Invasion recovering from surgery

ELMONT, N.Y. – Normandy Invasion, the multiple stakes-placed runner, is recuperating from surgery to repair a fractured sesamoid and will be evaluated at a later date to determine whether he will be put back in training next year.

Rick Porter, who races under the name Fox Hill Farm, posted the news about Normandy Invasion’s injury on his website Wednesday, though the injury occurred following a workout at Delaware Park on Sept. 17, according to trainer Larry Jones.

Jones said Normandy Invasion did undergo surgery, had two chips removed, and is convalescing at WinStar Farm in Lexington, Ky. According to Porter, Dr. Larry Bramlage said there is a “50-50 chance” that Normandy Invasion “can return at his prior level and with no increased risk of injury at that site.”

“Dr. Bramlage said, ‘Don’t rule him out,’ ” Jones said. “The main thing is can he come back at that level? We don’t want to bring him back to just get back to the races. We want him to be at the level that we’re used to seeing.”

Porter said on his website: “I will not race him unless Dr. Bramlage tells me he can race at the same level as he previously raced.”

Normandy Invasion, a son of Tapit, has won 2 of 9 starts but has gone winless in six stakes tries. Trained by Chad Brown for all of his starts, Normandy Invasion finished second in the Grade 2 Remsen at age 2, and at 3, he was second in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial and fourth in the Kentucky Derby.

This year at 4, after setting a track record while winning a first-level allowance race at Gulfstream in February, Normandy Invasion finished second to Palace Malice in the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds.

In his most recent start, Normandy Invasion finished 10th in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. He emerged from that race with a lung infection and was subsequently turned over to Jones by Porter.