Prairie Meadows: Beat the Blues will miss Saylorville Stakes

ALTOONA, Iowa – Beat the Blues, the 9-5 morning line favorite for Friday’s $100,000 Saylorville Stakes at Prairie Meadows, was not on a Wednesday flight from Louisville to Des Moines and will miss the race, which kicks off the two-card Iowa Festival of Racing.

Beat the Blues, the 2011 Saylorville champ and winner of the Grade 3 Winning Colors at Churchill Downs on May 27t, was “too sore” to get on the van to the airport from trainer Bret Calhoun’s Churchill stable.

According to Calhoun’s assistant, Dennis “Peaches” Geier, “Beat the Blues has been bothered by a minor foot abscess over the last few days and it got worse at the wrong time to make the race. It’s a minor setback for her and she’ll be fine.”

The scratch reduces the Saylorville field to five and Livi Makenzie inherits the role as probable favorite.