Trainer Kenny McPeek announced on Twitter Friday morning that Peter Callahan's Swiss Skydiver, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2020, would be scratched from Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.
“Unfortunately Swiss Skydiver had a 104 fever this morning,” McPeek Tweeted. “We are a scratch. We've treated her to knock down the fever and will regroup later in the season. Never easy.”
The scratch reduces the Phipps field to five starters following Daily Racing Form's report on Thursday that Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Martin Schwartz and CHC Inc.'s Valiance, winner of the G1 Spinster at Keeneland and second to Monomoy Girl in the G1 Breeders' Cup Distaff for trainer Todd Pletcher, was also knocked out by an elevated temperature.
Swiss Skydiver was the 5-2 co-second choice on the morning line behind 8-5 favorite Letruska, with Valiance listed at 4-1.
Swiss Skydiver's fever came after she vanned from Churchill Downs in Kentucky to Belmont Park. An experienced traveler, the daughter of Daredevil has competed over nine different tracks in a 14-race career.
On Thursday, DRF's Mike Welsch first reported the scratch of Valiance, a 5-year-old Tapit mare who would have been making her first start since the Breeders' Cup. “We're dealing with a temperature issue,” Pletcher told Welsch. “It's frustrating, She never trained better. Bad timing.”
Unfortunately Swiss Skydiver had a 104 fever this morning. We are a scratch. We've treated her to knock down the fever and will regroup later in the season. Never easy. pic.twitter.com/B3jJBKcKNX
— Kenny McPeek (@KennyMcPeek) June 4, 2021
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