By T. D. Thornton
A right knee injury that will require surgery has knocked the speedy gray MGSW El Areeb (Exchange Rate) out of a scheduled start in the Apr. 8 GII Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and off the Triple Crown trail.
Laurel Park-based trainer Cal Lynch confirmed the presence of a knee chip and possible slab fracture Thursday afternoon, explaining that the 'TDN Rising Star' owned by M M G Stables, LLC, began showing signs of discomfort late in the day on Wednesday after having worked an easy nine furlongs that morning, the last half of which was timed in :51.60.
Lynch said based on a typical prognosis for this type of injury, El Areeb could be back in training within six months.
“He got hurt [Wednesday] during his breeze,” Lynch explained. “Last night, whenever he tried to walk, he wasn't himself. He was a little quiet and he carried a little heat in his knee. We left him alone last night, came back [Thursday] morning, and he still had some heat in there. So we took X-rays. I'm not a surgeon, but I knew that he was just not right. It looks like a little start of a slab [fracture] maybe, and there's a little flake or a little chip in there.
“The pictures will be sent to Dr. Dean Richardson. He's in Hong Kong right now and not back until Sunday. El Areeb will have surgery on Monday morning at New Bolton [Center] in Pennsylvania, and [Richardson] will decide what we're going to do based on what he sees; we'll be a lot wiser once he sees what needs to get fixed. Hopefully he will put him all back together, and we'll be back for the fall. A nice horse like this, you don't want to take any chances. Rather than just patching him up and trying to get him out there [for a race], he's a special kind of horse, and we want to make sure we give him every opportunity to be that horse.”
El Areeb won four straight races between October and February, culminating with back-to-back Grade III wins in the Jerome S. and Withers S. over Aqueduct's inner track. He regressed to finish a well-beaten third at 2-5 odds after faltering on the lead in the Mar. 4 GIII Gotham S., and Lynch had been attempting to teach the $340,000 OBSMAR purchase to utilize has tactical speed more effectively by rating from off the pace in his training leading up to the Wood Memorial.
“It's just one of those things,” Lynch said. “It's part of racing. The owners were really, really good about it. They took everything really well. [They said] 'Do the right thing by the horse and we'll get him back here in a few months and go from there.'”
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
