World Approval getting rest of year off

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – World Approval, the reigning male turf champion, will be given the remainder of the year off and possibly be brought back for a 7-year-old campaign in 2019, trainer Mark Casse said.

“He’s not where I need him to be right now,” Casse said. “I talked to Mrs. [Charlotte] Weber about it, and she agreed. We’ll turn him out for two or three months.”

World Approval, a 6-year-old gelding by Northern Afleet, went 5 for 6 in 2017, finishing the year with three consecutive Grade 1 wins including the Breeders’ Cup Mile. He earned the Eclipse Award for male turf champion.

World Approval began this year with a victory in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes, but finished fifth in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita and sixth in the Grade 2 Wise Dan at Churchill Downs. Casse had wanted to run him at Saratoga on Aug. 11 in the Fourstardave, a race World Approval won last year, but the horse wasn’t training to his satisfaction.

World Approval left Saratoga on Friday for Weber’s Live Oak Plantation farm in Ocala, Fla.

“Mrs. Weber loves racing. We’ll send him home, they have a wonderful facility there and he’ll get turned, out and we’ll bring him back towards the end of the year and see how he is,” Casse said. “He owes us nothing.”

To date, World Approval has won 12 races from 27 starts and has earned $3,062,363.