Catalano On the Mend

Conditioner Wayne Catalano is recovering well from a case of acute pneumonia and was released from Saint Alexius Medical Center in Illinois yesterday, where he had been since July 22. 
    “I spoke to him yesterday afternoon and it was the best I have heard him since he got sick,” said Anna Seitz, whose ownership group Hit the Board Stables has horses in training with Catalano. “He is always joking around and happy and that is how he sounded yesterday for the first time, so it was promising to hear him in good spirits.” 
    Seitz added, “He said he still doesn’t have a lot of energy, but of course he said, ‘I’m going to the barn Wednesday.’ I said, ‘You are crazy! You can’t.’ He just wants to get there so bad and it’s killing him to be away from it. All signs are looking good. He has been doing physical therapy and his rehab has been going well. Thank God he is through the worst of it now and we just have to keep him from working too hard, so he doesn’t get sick again.” 
    Catalano has been released just in time to join Seitz in seeing Hit the Board Stables’ I’m Already Sexy (Ready’s Image) run in Arlington’s GI Beverly D. S. this weekend. The dark bay has an affinity for the Arlington turf course with four wins in six starts there, including a victory in the GIII Modesty H. last time out July 12. 
    “She is doing really well,” Seitz remarked. “She breezed a beautiful 5/8 [at Arlington Sunday]. Florent Geroux was on her again, who has won on her all these times at Arlington. He said, ‘I didn’t even ask her and she just went in :59 flat on her own.’ We are always trying to get him to slow her down and he said that is just what she does. I think she is coming into peak form right now.”