Quick maiden winner Banishing resumes training after cutting leg

Banishing, the fastest 2- or 3-year-old maiden winner at the ongoing Fair Grounds meet, has resumed galloping after missing a period of training due to a cut on his leg.

Banishing was injured during the night of Jan. 20, forcing his connections, Godolphin and trainer Brendan Walsh, to scratch the colt from an intended Fair Grounds allowance-race start the following day. Walsh said Banishing became cast in his stall and opened a wound on a hind leg that required suturing.

“He started galloping again four or five days ago,” Walsh said Tuesday.

A homebred by Ghostzapper out of Dowager, by A.P. Indy, Banishing finished a decent forth racing a one-turn mile without Lasix in his Nov. 26 debut at Churchill Downs. Stretched to two turns over 1 1/16 miles in a Dec. 26 Fair Grounds maiden race, Banishing set a strong pace and drew away to an 8 1/2-length victory, his time of 1:44.80 producing a 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

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Though there’s another first level dirt-route allowance race scheduled for Feb. 18, Walsh said no target race has been set for Banishing. “Nothing has been ruled out or ruled in,” he said.

Determinedly, who won the allowance race Banishing was supposed to contest, is expected to focus on one-turn races going forward, trainer Mark Casse said. Tapit’s Conquest, second with some trouble in the allowance, is a potential runner in the Feb. 18 Risen Star for trainer Brad Cox.

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