“TDN Rising Star” McCraken (Ghostzapper) will aim for the June 17 GIII Matt Winn S. at Churchill following a disappointing eighth in last weekend's GI Kentucky Derby.
“He's doing fine,” trainer Ian Wilkes said. “He suffered a puncture wound to his left hind leg after getting banged around at the start [of the Derby]. I was conservative with him for the last couple of days but we will return to the track on Sunday.”
The conditioner added, “We'll live to fight another day. I thought he made a tremendous move in the race. As soon as I saw Brian [Hernandez Jr.] ask him to go, I thought to myself, 'Here we go, we're going to be right there.' Then, he flattened out. I need to figure out why.”
McCraken won the first three starts of his career beneath the Twin Spires, following a debut victory Oct. 2 with scores in the Oct. 30 Street Sense S. and Nov. 26 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. Kicking off his sophomore season with a win in the GIII Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa Feb. 11, the Whitham Thoroughbreds homebred suffered his first loss when third in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. Apr. 8 prior to the Run for the Roses.
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