Prospect Park will miss Big Cap with leg injury

ARCADIA, Calif. - Prospect Park, the winner of the Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap on turf at Del Mar last August, will miss the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 12 with a leg injury.

Trainer Clifford Sise said on Sunday that Prospect Park has “a little fracture in a hock.”

The 4-year-old Prospect Park will be sent to owners Pam and Marty Wygod’s farm in Santa Ynez, Calif. for a three-month recovery. The injury will not require surgery, Sise said.

Prospect Park has won 3 of 12 starts and earned $439,570. He finished second to Follow Me Crev in an optional claimer on Feb. 14, his only start this year. Follow Me Crev was considered for the Big Cap, but will miss the race because of a quarter crack, trainer Vladimir Cerin said last weekend.

The race will also not include Hoppertunity, the winner of the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes on Feb. 6 who is bound for the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 26.

The Big Cap candidates include Effinex and General a Rod from Florida, and Imperative and Donworth, who were second and third in the San Antonio.