Quiet Resolve breaks ankle

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Quiet Resolve, Canada's Horse of the Year in 2000 and a Grade 1 winner of $2.3 million, was in guarded condition at the University of Guelph's veterinary clinic Friday after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured hind ankle.

Trainer Mark Frostad said Quiet Resolve suffered the career-ending injury when he pulled up from a routine gallop at Woodbine on Thursday morning.

Quiet Resolve, a 7-year-old gelding owned and bred by Sam-Son Farm, had been scheduled to make his final start of the season here in Sunday's Labeeb Stakes.

"He was just going into the race perfect," said Frostad. "He was going to get a long rest after this."

Quiet Resolve is a winner of 10 of 31 career starts, the last 30 on the grass, and has finished second or third on another 10 occasions.

Quiet Resolve had his best season in 2000, when he was voted a Sovereign Award as Canada's champion turf horse, in addition to horse of the year honors. He was victorious that year in Pimlico's Grade 2 Dixie and Woodbine's Grade 2 Hong Kong Jockey Club Trophy and also finished a close second to Kalanisi in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Churchill Downs.

He made what has turned out to be the last start of his career at Keeneland on Oct. 11, winning a classified allowance over a mile on soft turf, which never has been his preferred going.

"It's very sad. You get used to having a horse like him around," said Frostad. "You never really conceive of the place without him, until something like this happens.

"He may not have been as good as he once was, but he was still very good. I thought he'd be running until he was 10, the way he was."