Read the Footnotes retired

Read the Footnotes, the New York-bred who won the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth earlier this year, has been retired to stand at stud, trainer Rick Violette said Thursday.

Violette, who trained for owner Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables, said negotiations will soon be completed for the colt's stallion career. Violette said a knee problem Read the Footnotes had earlier his year - "arthritic changes in there, not even chips" - flared up again, and that the pending deal to sell the colt was too good to pass up.

Read the Footnotes, a son of Smoke Glacken out of Baydon Belle, by Al Nasr, won 5 of 8 starts and earned $450,660. Read the Footnotes cost $320,000 at auction.

At 2, Read the Footnotes won 4 of 5 starts, including the Grade 3 Nashua and Grade 2 Remsen. He began his 3-year-old season with a stirring neck victory over Second of June in the Fountain of Youth.

After running a disappointing fourth in the Florida Derby, Read the Footnotes finished seventh in the Kentucky Derby, from which he emerged with a chip in his knee that needed to be surgically removed.

Read the Footnotes did make it back to the entry box, but was scratched out of an allowance race on Nov. 27 because of the knee problem.