Promising 3-year-old Shipsational has been ruled out of a planned start in the Grade 1 Florida Derby this Saturday, his septuagenarian trainer Ed Barker told Horse Racing Nation on Wednesday. The son of Midshipman developed inflammation in his right front ankle on Tuesday, and while an x-ray did not reveal any issues, further diagnostics were required.
“I just wouldn't take the chance of running him because he's got a big-time future ahead of him,” Barker told HRN.
Bred in New York by Mr. and Mrs. Bertram R. Firestone, Shipsational is out of the winning Thunder Gulch mare Regal Approach. A $27,000 weanling at the Keeneland November sale, the colt brought $210,000 at the OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training.
A maiden special weight winner at first asking in Saratoga last summer, Shipsational closed out his juvenile season with back-to-back state-bred stakes victories in New York.
This year the colt has earned a second-place finish in the G3 Sam F. Davis Stakes and a third-place finish in the G2 Tampa Bay Derby.
Shipsational currently ranks 21st on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, with 14 points.
Read more at Horse Racing Nation.
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