Hit the Road, winner of the prestigious Grade I Frank E. Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita last March but a disappointing eighth in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 26, has been turned out for a freshening.
“He's at Kingfisher (Farms) in Solvang (a popular tourist town in the Santa Ynez Valley) and he'll be back in the summer,” trainer Dan Blacker said of the five-year-old More Than Ready horse owned by a partnership.
“To win Grade 1's you have to have a horse 100 percent and he wasn't quite 100 percent (for the Gulfstream race),” Blacker said.
Hit the Road finished eighth, beaten some 13 lengths.
“He'll have a couple months off and hopefully there's a chance he could be ready for a race like the Del Mar Mile if everything goes smoothly,” Blacker said.
“There's a notion that he doesn't ship well (the Pegasus was only his second start outside of Southern California in 13 career races), but I know him very well and he's very smart, very intelligent, and he shipped very well to Florida.
“There were other reasons he didn't run his best and we're going to hopefully take care of them . . . but it wasn't just the shipping . . . We'll be patient and hopefully have him back at his best this summer.”
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