Saratoga: Vyjack has ulcers, to get break

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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Vyjack, the multiple graded stakes winning 3-year-old who fizzled in the Triple Crown series, has been diagnosed with a bad case of gastric ulcers, according to his owner, David Wilkenfeld, and will likely be out until next year.

After spending a week at the New Bolton Center, an equine medical facility in Kennett Square, Pa., Vyjack will be turned out for at least two months, Wilkenfeld said. That turn-out will take place at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland.

Wilkenfeld said that Dr. Louise Southwood told him Vyjack's ulcers are "one of the worst cases she's seen. But it definitely can be treated and healed."

Wilkenfeld said that Vyjack was shipped to Aqueduct following his sixth-place finish in Sunday's Haskell Invitational at Monmouth. He showed signs of colic and was then vanned to New Bolton on Wednesday.

While Wilkenfeld did not give a specific time frame for Vyjack's return, he indicated the horse likely would not run again until next year.

"We'll give him as much time as he needs," Wilkenfeld said. "I was disappointed in the race, disappointed that he's sick. There are a lot of ups downs in this game, as I'm finding out."

Vyjack won his first four races, including the Grade 2 Jerome and Grade 3 Gotham. After finishing a respectable third to Verrazano in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial, Vyjack finished 18th in the Kentucky Derby and eighth in the Belmont. On Sunday, he was a nonthreatening sixth in the Haskell.