Santa Anita: Champ Pegasus nearing return to training

Champ Pegasus, the millionaire multiple graded stakes winner, will resume training in February after undergoing surgery for a cannon bone injury suffered in the fall.

Trainer Richard Mandella said that a screw was placed in Champ Pegasus’s cannon bone after a second-place finish in the Clement Hirsch Turf Championship on Oct. 2. The injury disrupted plans for a potential start in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf or Japan Cup in November. Champ Pegasus was second in the 2010 BC Turf.

“He’ll be out for another six weeks,” Mandella said Monday. “We’ll get him ready for the last half of the year. He should be fine.”

Owned by Gerald Ford and Arturo Vargas, Champ Pegasus has won 5 of 14 starts and $1,052,520. His three stakes wins include the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Turf Championship in 2010. The race was downgraded to a Grade 2 for 2011.