Swipe may recover from surgery in time to make Triple Crown trail

CYPRESS, Calif. - Swipe, second to Nyquist in four consecutive stakes, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland on Oct. 31, underwent surgery to have a bone chip removed from an ankle last month, trainer Keith Desormeaux said.

Desormeaux said over the weekend he is hopeful that Swipe can return to training in early 2016 and run in prep races for the Triple Crown in March and April.

“We think we still have a chance,” Desormeaux said.

Desormeaux said Swipe will spend a month at a Southern California layup facility, where he will be in light training.

“I’m thinking two months for him to get back,” he said.

Owned by a partnership, Swipe has one win in seven starts – the Summer Juvenile Championship at Los Alamitos in July. In four subsequent starts, Swipe has finished second to division leader Nyquist in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar in August, and three consecutive Grade 1 races – the Del Mar Futurity in September, the FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita in September, and the BC Juvenile.

The Desormeaux-trained Exaggerator, the winner of the Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes in Louisiana last month, will be based at Santa Anita for the winter-spring meeting. Desormeaux said the $150,000 San Vicente Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs on Feb. 15 is a tentative first goal for Exaggerator, a son of Curlin.

Exaggerator is owned by Matt Bryan’s Big Chief Racing, which is part of the ownership group of Swipe.

The stable’s leading 2-year-old of 2014 was Texas Red, the winner of the BC Juvenile at Santa Anita that year. Texas Red was scheduled to arrive at the stable on Sunday, having spent recent months at a farm in Kentucky.

Texas Red won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 1, but was turned out following a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes there on Aug. 29.

“I’m glad to get him back in my hands,” Desormeaux said. “It will be fun.”