Updates

Mr. Fantasy worked an easy four furlongs in 52:41 (20 of 21) on Saturday at Saratoga. Mike told his exercise rider to keep a firm hold of our colt and to go nice and easy. Mr. Fantasy finished up with good energy and is scheduled to work back this weekend. Mike said, “In his next work we’ll tighten the screws a little bit and get a very good blow into him. Soundness wise he is doing fine. With one more half mile work and two 5/8ths, he should be ready to run.” A start at Saratoga is not viable considering Mr. Fantasy did not work from July 6th-August 6th due to his foot bruise. Right now he is about a month out from a race. We’ll look to run early at Belmont, which begins on September 10th.

The Defense Rests has been retired from racing. So disappointing after such a big win at Saratoga.

All Partners have been contacted about his injury, but here is quick recap:
-Post race he cooled out soundly, but a few days later Mike noticed he was off up front.
-X-rays revealed a large bone chip in the same knee Dr. Baker operated on last year.
-The chip was in the lower joint of the knee, which is less favorable than the top joint. Prognosis for return to racing is fair, but he would be downgraded in class.
-His quality of life would be effected without removal of the chip because of the onset of arthritis. Accordingly, we sent him for surgery last week at New Jersey Equine Hospital.
-In our experience, horses with chips in the bottom joint of the knee rarely ever come back and perform well.
-It is our strong recommendation that we retire him and find him a good home away from the races. It is just not economical to bring a horse back as a five-year-old after two knee surgeries, especially considering the struggles we’ve had with his feet

Phosphorescent’s breeder Nancy Waylett, has expressed an interest in retiring him to her farm in Maryland. We are working to finalize this, but are very happy to see this guy go to a good home.