Wonder Wheel, 2022 juvenile filly champ, retired and will be sold

Wonder Wheel, the 2022 Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old filly, has been retired from racing and will be sold as a broodmare prospect this fall.

Wonder Wheel, by leading sire Into Mischief, won four of five starts last year for D.J. Stable and trainer Mark Casse. After winning the Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs in her second start, she was second in the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga. She wrapped up the season with back-to-back Grade 1 wins at Keeneland to secure a divisional championship, taking the Alcibiades and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Wonder Wheel opened this season by finishing second in the Suncoast Stakes in Florida off her winter layoff, but then never touched her past form, finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland, ninth in the Kentucky Oaks, and, finally, eighth in the Grade 3 Selene on July 1 at Woodbine.

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Jon Green, general manager for D.J. Stable, told Thoroughbred Daily News, first to report the filly's retirement, that the champion had struggled with nagging ankle issues that hampered her return to top form.

“Wonder Wheel has been battling a couple of minor issues since her 2-year-old year,” Green said. “She had bone bruising and a minor ankle injury. We gave her some time off and did a little procedure on her ankle to take care of a flake. Unfortunately, because she is a 17-hand beast, she continued to have some bone bruising and the same ankle has been an issue. This week, we decided that because she would need some time before we could run her again that we'd pull the plug on her racing career."

Wonder Wheel will be cataloged for the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale in November, becoming one of the first prominent attractions in the book for the "Night of the Stars." The single-session sale annually attracts a high concentration of accomplished race fillies and prominent producers.

Wonder Wheel is out of the Grade 1-placed multiple stakes winner Wonder Gal. This is the extended family of Grade 1 winners Force the Pass and Perfect Drift.

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