Vodka Vodka to miss Gold Cup with bruised foot

Vodka Vodka, second in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in March, will miss the Grade 2 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 25 because of foot issues.

Trainer and co-owner Aggie Ordonez said on Friday that Vodka Vodka emerged from a win in his last start in the $250,000 Sunland Park Handicap in New Mexico on April 5 with a bruised foot.

“When he ran at Sunland Park, he stumbled at the break and pulled a shoe off,” Ordonez said. “We’ve had some repercussions from that. He bruised the foot. He’s blown a couple of abscesses out.”

Ordonez said that Vodka Vodka is currently jogging at Santa Anita and is likely to be fitted with a bar shoe that will allow him to continue training.

“We’ll probably have to put a bar shoe on him and protect it and let that hoof grow,” Ordonez said. “It will let that [foot] heal and become less tender.”

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Vodka Vodka has won four of his last six starts since last October, including the $175,000 Unusual Heat Turf Classic at 1 1/8 miles for statebreds at Santa Anita in January.

Ordonez said races such as the Grade 3 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap in Iowa on July 11, or the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 18 are under consideration. Both races are worth $300,000. The Cornhusker Handicap is run at 1 1/8 miles, while the San Diego Handicap is run at 1 1/16 miles.

“He’ll lead the way and tell us,” Ordonez said.

Ordonez co-owns Vodka Vodka with a partnership that includes breeders Jerry and Connie Baker and McLean Racing Stables.

Om N Joy, the stable’s star filly, is on schedule for a start in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes, a $200,000 race for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita on May 30.

Om N Joy, a half-sister to Vodka Vodka, has won four stakes in the last 13 months. She was fifth of nine at 23-1 in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 11.

The Santa Margarita Stakes may be the first start of 2026 for Seismic Beauty, who won the race last year. Trained by Bob Baffert, Seismic Beauty later won the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar last August and was 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar last November.

Seismic Beauty is now owned by Randy and Jenny Boyd, who bought the 5-year-old mare for $2.5 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale last fall.

The $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup is one of three major stakes on May 25 along with two Grade 1 races worth $300,000 on turf – the Shoemaker Mile and the Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles.

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