Concrete Rose sidelined

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Concrete Rose, the leading 3-year-old turf filly in the country, will miss the remainder of the year due to a hairline fracture in her right foreleg, trainer Rusty Arnold said Sunday.

Arnold said Concrete Rose seemed to be a little off in her training, but it took three sets of X-rays before the hairline fracture was detected. Arnold said veterinarians Dr. William True Baker, of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, and Dr. Larry Bramlage, of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, both diagnosed the fracture after evaluating X-rays.

“It’s the start of a tiny crack,” Arnold said. “No screws, no surgery. She’ll miss 90 days of training, but she should come back 100 percent.”

Concrete Rose is 6 for 7 in her career and has won all four of her starts this year, including the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational and the inaugural running of the Saratoga Oaks Invitational on Aug. 2. She was pointing to the $750,000 Jockey Club Oaks, the third leg of the Triple Turf Tiara inaugurated this year by the New York Racing Association, on Sept. 7.

“It’s disappointing,” Arnold said. “As long as I’ve done it you realize you’re so happy they’re going to come back instead of having a career-ending injury.”

Concrete Rose, a daughter of Twirling Candy, is owned by Ashbrook Farm and BBN Racing LLC. Her other stakes wins include the Grade 2 Jessamine at age 2 and the Grade 3 Florida Oaks and Grade 3 Edgewood this year. She has earned $1,218,650.

– David Grening

Dunbar Road may face older

Dunbar Road came out of her victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Alabama in good order, and while trainer Chad Brown said the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita is a likely year-end goal, how he gets the 3-year-old filly there is undetermined.

“We never really planned beyond the Alabama,” Brown, who trains Dunbar Road for owner Peter Brant, said Sunday morning.

The next major race restricted to 3-year-old fillies is the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion on Sept. 21 at Parx Racing. Brown has Guarana earmarked for that race, as he has the two top route 3-year-old fillies in his barn. Guarana has won the Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks – both Grade 1 events – while Dunbar Road added the Grade 1 Alabama to her Grade 2 Mother Goose score in June.

Dunbar Road will likely have to face older females in her next start in a race like the Grade 2 Beldame going 1 1/8 miles on Sept. 28 at Belmont or the Grade 1, $500,000 Spinster on Oct. 6 at Keeneland.

Dunbar Road overcame sloppy conditions and a wide trip to win the Alabama by 2 3/4 lengths. She was assigned a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure.

Trainer George Weaver said Alabama runner-up Point of Honor also is doing fine after the Alabama. Weaver said he would nominate Point of Honor to the Cotillion, but believes it’s “a little quick back.”

– David Grening

Lake Placid rematch setting up

Somewhat lost in all the commotion surrounding the prevailing weather conditions, breathtaking ending, and ultimate controversy over the final result of the photo finish was the fact both Varenka and Regal Glory ran their eyeballs out before dead-heating for first in Saturday’s Grade 2 Lake Placid.

Both Varenka and Regal Glory rallied from near the rear of the pack off a very tepid pace before surging late to finish on even terms at the end of the 1 1/16-mile Lake Placid, decided as a potentially dangerous lightning and rainstorm descended on the track. It took the judges more than six minutes attempting to separate the top pair on the wire before ultimately calling for the dead heat, explaining the photo finish was too “inconclusive” to leave them any other option.

“It’s a little bit hard for me to know what to make of it,” said Graham Motion, who trains Varenka. “There’s been stuff online about the photo and everything. But I’m sure the stewards had a reason for making the decision they made. At the end of the day, all I know is that my filly ran an extraordinary race to do what she did. She was in front before the wire and right after the wire. I don’t know what happened on the wire. What I do know is that it was a great effort on her part and I’m really proud of her.”

Varenka, who earned a career-best 87 Beyer Speed Figure for her effort in the Lake Placid, has now won her last two starts and three of her last four dating back to her maiden win on May 11 at Belmont Park. She was graded-stakes placed as a maiden at 2 before concluding the season finishing a troubled fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

“She’s a really neat filly, and her performance yesterday makes me feel good about what we did last year when we ran her in the Breeders’ Cup,” Motion said. “I thought she was that good, but she just got unlucky that day.”

Motion said Varenka came out of the Lake Placid “good, but tired” and that looking down the road, he will consider the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II on Oct. 12 at Keeneland as a possible option during the fall.

“It’s the big one, so we have to think about it,” Motion said.

Brown, who trains Regal Glory along with third-place finisher Blowout, just a neck back of the top pair at the wire after setting the pace in the Lake Placid, agrees with Motion that both winners ran huge races Saturday.

“I thought Regal Glory ran terrific to run into the slow pace, as did Varenka, who probably ran the best race. She was farthest back and ran widest,” Brown said. “Although in the end it doesn’t matter who ran the best race, it’s who hits the line first that’s the winner. And from the photo I saw, it looked like we clearly won the race.”

That opinion aside, however, Brown said he is willing to accept the stewards’ decision to call the race a dead heat.

“I’m not sure what parameters there are from a steward’s perspective in a situation like this, with the uncertainly over the photo, and I’m not one to challenge their rulings so I’ll defer to them diplomatically on this issue,” he said.

The issue of who is actually best between Varenka and Regal Glory may well be settled where it should be in the near future – on the racetrack – with Brown saying the QE II could also be on her dance card down the road.

“I think Regal Glory can go farther, so a race like the QE II makes sense for her, while I’m probably going to focus on races a little shorter for Blowout,” he said.

– Mike Welsch

Bulletin, the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner, worked a half-mile in 50.31 seconds Sunday morning over the Oklahoma training track. He is scheduled to make his next start in Sunday’s $100,000 Better Talk Now Stakes at a mile on turf. Bulletin has not run since finishing fourth in the William Walker Stakes on April 27 at Churchill Downs. He was scheduled to race in June at the Royal Ascot meeting but developed a temperature that caused him to miss several weeks of training.

– David Grening