Woodbine: Strait of Dover to miss rest of year

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Strait of Dover, last year’s Queen’s Plate winner and Canada’s champion 3-year-old male, will not see action this season.

“We had to put him away,” said Danny Vella, who trains the British Columbia-bred Strait of Dover for owners and breeders Wally and Terry Leung. “He has a small injury in his leg, the same leg he hurt last year.”

Strait of Dover sustained a suspensory-related injury here last summer while preparing for the Breeders’ Stakes, which was to be his first start since the Queen’s Plate in June. The colt wintered on trainer Donnie MacRae’s One More Time farm in the Niagara region but was back at the track with Vella this March and was getting close to his first breeze when his latest setback occurred.

“He’s gone back to the farm,” Vella said. “He’ll be three to four weeks hand-walking, then we’ll turn him out for five months, just let him be a horse, and bring him back next year. It’s a shame. I was looking forward to getting him running.”