Union Strike will miss Test Stakes at Saratoga

DEL MAR, Calif. - Union Strike, winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante last September, will miss the Grade 1 Test Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Saratoga on Aug. 5 because of an undisclosed injury.

Owner and trainer Mick Ruis said Saturday that Union Strike will be out of training for 90 days.

“We’ll back off for 90 days,” Ruis said. “She has a little issue. She doesn’t need surgery.”

Ruis said he hopes Union Strike can resume racing “after Christmas” at Santa Anita’s winter meeting.

Union Strike, who Ruis co-owns with his wife Wendy, has won 2 of 7 starts and earned $332,160. She won the Del Mar Debutante when trained by Ruis’s daughter, Shelbe.

Earlier this year, Union Strike won the minor Santa Paula Stakes at Santa Anita and was second in the Grade 2 Eight Belles Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 5. In her last start, Union Strike was fifth in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10.

Even without Union Strike, there are three other Southern California-based candidates for the seven-furlong Test Stakes: American Gal, Chalon, and Faypien.