Rudy Rodriguez has tough week

Trainer Rudy Rodriguez looks to be on his way to winning a fifth Aqueduct winter meet training title, but this has not been a pleasant week for the veteran conditioner.

On Wednesday, Rodriguez was putting the 3-year-old Hyperactive Chris through a workout when that horse broke down near the wire on the Belmont training track. Rodriguez was thrown hard to the track and said he felt some discomfort in his ribs, neck, and back. Unfortunately, Hyperactive Chris, who had finished second in his lone start, had to be euthanized.

“I’m a little beat up, but I’m okay, thank God,” Rodriguez said. “The horse never had anything wrong with him. Unbelievable.”

On Friday, Rodriguez said that Eagle Orb didn’t feel right coming off the training track following a routine gallop earlier that morning. Subsequent X-rays revealed a crack in a sesamoid, forcing the 3-year-old New York-bred out of Sunday’s $100,000 Damon Runyon Stakes and likely sidelining him indefinitely.

“This can be a tough game sometimes,” Rodriguez said.

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Rodriguez entered Friday’s card with 29 wins at the Aqueduct winter meet, eight more than Linda Rice, to whom Rodriguez has finished second the last two winter meets.

Among the horses that have won for Rodriguez at this meet are Yankee Division and Wudda U Think Now, both of whom are in separate races on Sunday’s card.

On Feb. 13, Yankee Division won a New York-bred second-level allowance race by 6 1/2 lengths, earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure. Sunday, Yankee Division will run in a first-level allowance going 1 1/8 miles.

“He came out of the race very good, and we were thinking about taking him right away to a stake,” said Rodriguez, who has Yankee Division nominated to next week’s Haynesfield Stakes. “But I think this may be a better spot for him. Todd [Pletcher] has two horses in that race that look pretty solid.”

Pletcher sends out Bold Agenda, a maiden winner on Feb. 14 at Gulfstream going a mile. He also sends out Ajaaweed, who is coming out of an eighth-place finish in this condition going a mile at Gulfstream.

Wudda U Think Now runs in Sunday’s seventh, a New York-bred second-level allowance going a one-turn mile. Wudda U Think Now was fourth behind Yankee Division in that Feb. 13 race.

“We’re going to give him another chance on Sunday,” Rodriguez said. “Tell Trevor to put him on the lead. . . . Maybe last time we took the run away from him.”