Un Ojo will not enter in the Preakness Stakes (G1) after the foot bruise that kept the one-eyed gelding out of the Kentucky Derby flared back up, as first reported by turfwriter Jennie Rees on Twitter Monday morning.
“This morning his foot was a little warm again,” Louisiana-based trainer Ricky Courville said Monday morning by phone. “The vets went over him, and he's not 100 percent. I'm dealing with the same thing. I guess the work kind of re-aggravated it.”
As with the Kentucky Derby, Un Ojo was withdrawn from the Preakness on the morning of entries. The New York-bred gelding, who won Oaklawn Park's Rebel Stakes at 75-1 odds, had a five-eighths mile work Saturday at Churchill Downs and seemed to come out of that training move in good order.
“He looked really good (Sunday) morning, and in the afternoon they went and checked him out. He was a tad off, the foot was a little warm,” said Courville, whose son, Clay, has been overseeing Un Ojo in Kentucky. “This morning it was the same.”
Un Ojo is owned by Cypress Creek Equine and Whispering Oaks Farm, and was bred in New York by Southern Equine Stables. He lost an eye in a paddock accident early in his life, but made it to the races without issue and won at second asking at Delta Downs in Vinton, La. He ran well in a pair of stakes races in Louisiana, then finished second in a New York-bred stakes to close out his juvenile season.
The gelding began 2022 with a second-place effort in the G3 Withers, then captured the G2 Rebel at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., in a 75-1 upset. Un Ojo endured a tough trip in the G1 Arkansas Derby, bouncing off the inside rail hard enough to require stitches in his shoulder, but had recovered and was shipped to Churchill Downs for the Run for the Roses.
Unfortunately the hoof bruise kept him out of the race on the first Saturday in May, and now it will keep Un Ojo out of the Preakness as well.
Foot bruise that kept Un Ojo out of #KentuckyDerby will keep one-eyed gelding out of @PreaknessStakes. Trainer Ricky Courville tells #Preakness team that foot was a little warm this AM, 2 days after La-based Un Ojo worked. @LAHorseReporter @Steve_Byk @ScottWykoffWBAL @wbaltv11
— Jennie Rees (@TracksideJennie) May 16, 2022
The post Un Ojo Ruled Out Of Preakness Bid Due To Reaggravated Foot Bruise appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
