Stradivari suffers career-ending injury

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Stradivari, who ran in two of the three Triple Crown races, suffered a career-ending injury during a workout Friday morning at Saratoga.

According to trainer Todd Pletcher, Stradivari has a lateral condylar fracture and an axial fracture of a sesamoid in his right foreleg. As of Friday afternoon, he was resting comfortably in a stall at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Saratoga Springs. The hope is that he continues to do well over the weekend and can undergo surgery Monday.

“He’s comfortable, stable, he’s in a support-cast bandage,” Pletcher said Friday. “They’re going to evaluate him over the weekend. It’s definitely a career-ending injury, but depending on how they assess the structure around there and the blood supply and the blood vessels, as long as there’s no clotting, they’re optimistic they can do a surgery on Monday that would fuse the ankle.”

X-rays taken immediately after the injury did not show a sesamoid fracture. However, X-rays taken at Rood and Riddle did show a fracture.

Stradivari was galloping out following a five-furlong workout over the main track that was done in company with Destin, the Belmont Stakes runner-up. Stradivari was pulled up abruptly in the middle of the turn by exercise rider Patti Krotenko. Stradivari was vanned off.

Stradivari, a son of Medaglia d’Oro, ran fourth in the Preakness and fifth in the Belmont Stakes. He was being pointed to the $100,000 Curlin Stakes on July 29.

Stradivari, owned by John Gunther, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, won 2 of 5 starts, including an allowance at Keeneland by 14 1/2 lengths.