Runhappy sidelined for 60 days
The 4-year-old debut of Runhappy has been further delayed. The champion sprinter of 2015 was diagnosed last week with bone bruising of the right front cannon bone and will be kept out of training for about 60 days while remaining stabled at the Thoroughbred Center training facility in Lexington, Ky., trainer Laura Wohlers said Monday.
Hampered in recent months by a bruise of the right hind hoof, Runhappy had been jogging regularly since March but had been reluctant to gallop. A diagnosis by nuclear scintigraphy revealed the bruising, and stall rest is all that is required to heal it, said Wohlers.
“He’d just been quirky in his training,” said Wohlers. “We couldn’t find anything, so finally we sent him in for a bone scan to Dr. [Larry] Bramlage, and that’s when he found it. We’ve just got to give him more time is all. It’s better to put off a campaign than have to stop in the middle of it.”
Runhappy is unraced since winning the Malibu Stakes on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita. Owned by Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale, the colt was a sensation in ending his 3-year-old season with consecutive victories in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop, Phoenix, BC Sprint, and Malibu. His career record is 7 for 8 with earnings of nearly $1.5 million.
Wohlers had hoped to have Runhappy ready this spring for races such as the Grade 2 Churchill Downs and Grade 1 Met Mile, but now she is making the Nov. 5 BC Sprint at Santa Anita her long-range target, ideally with a prep race beforehand.
“Hopefully, he’ll be all healed up when we get him back in August and we can proceed from there,” she said.
McIngvale, the Houston furniture tycoon who is Wohlers’s brother-in-law, has said he not only wants to campaign Runhappy at 4 but also next year at 5. The bay colt by Super Saver was a $200,000 yearling purchase.
McIngvale is one of the 12 “investors” who have purchased a $1 million starting berth for the $12 million Pegasus World Cup in January at Gulfstream Park.
A previous version of this article misstated the most recent start for Runhappy. It was the Malibu Stakes, not the Breeders' Cup Sprint.