Post by Ripley on Aug 31, 2016 13:36:03 GMT -5
Sun King Out For Remainder Of Year
In a shocking turn of events, Ripley Marsh announced that Sun King is done for Year Sixteen... at least until November or December. The dominant horse at two and three just hasn't been himself since June and it has left his connections totally baffled until now.
The stallion exited his fourth consecutive second place finish exhausted and battered. A field that he once would have demonized on the track had left him a broken horse. Unwilling to acknowledge that the horse has lost his winning touch, Ripley called in the vets and had the horse scoped and all four legs x-rayed.
"He scoped okay, not the greatest. There was some mucus in his throat, but the big thing was that they found a chip in his knee that will need to be removed. It's unfortunate that we had this happen right now because we honestly felt at the beginning of the year that he could be Year Sixteen's Horse Of The Year. An animal like him gives you all of the confidence in the world and to let him down like we have the last few months... it's not fair to him or his legacy."
Despite the nagging issue, Sun King had put together an outstanding early season with wins in 5 HOTY races including the Unicorn Horn Mile, Spring Dawn Treader Cup, the New Hampshire Sweep Classic and his last win, the Hockessen Stakes. Not all is lost for his fans though. We may still see the sterling horse back for more.
"We were wavering on entering the Breeders' Cup at all with him because we have a great group of older males. Sun King is fantastic, but we have bigger things on the mind with him. We'll probably squeeze in a few races to get his mind back to racing in November and December, but the big goal will be the Dubai World Mile again. We'll take him back to his roots and hopefully by that point GHF and BSD put some miler races up for us to go in and we'll get a chance to show the world that Sun King is still the beast he was at two and three. We have lots of options."
While the competition may not find such a return so exciting, many of the chestnut's faithful followers will be eagerly awaiting the horse's return to the track. First, however, the colt is off to surgery and then a brief vacation and recovery. What will return we are not sure, but one can only think that once his issue is fixed, King will be as good as new... which is indeed a scary thought.
The stallion exited his fourth consecutive second place finish exhausted and battered. A field that he once would have demonized on the track had left him a broken horse. Unwilling to acknowledge that the horse has lost his winning touch, Ripley called in the vets and had the horse scoped and all four legs x-rayed.
"He scoped okay, not the greatest. There was some mucus in his throat, but the big thing was that they found a chip in his knee that will need to be removed. It's unfortunate that we had this happen right now because we honestly felt at the beginning of the year that he could be Year Sixteen's Horse Of The Year. An animal like him gives you all of the confidence in the world and to let him down like we have the last few months... it's not fair to him or his legacy."
Despite the nagging issue, Sun King had put together an outstanding early season with wins in 5 HOTY races including the Unicorn Horn Mile, Spring Dawn Treader Cup, the New Hampshire Sweep Classic and his last win, the Hockessen Stakes. Not all is lost for his fans though. We may still see the sterling horse back for more.
"We were wavering on entering the Breeders' Cup at all with him because we have a great group of older males. Sun King is fantastic, but we have bigger things on the mind with him. We'll probably squeeze in a few races to get his mind back to racing in November and December, but the big goal will be the Dubai World Mile again. We'll take him back to his roots and hopefully by that point GHF and BSD put some miler races up for us to go in and we'll get a chance to show the world that Sun King is still the beast he was at two and three. We have lots of options."
While the competition may not find such a return so exciting, many of the chestnut's faithful followers will be eagerly awaiting the horse's return to the track. First, however, the colt is off to surgery and then a brief vacation and recovery. What will return we are not sure, but one can only think that once his issue is fixed, King will be as good as new... which is indeed a scary thought.
