The plan was for Lucky Seven Stables’ Smile Happy to run in the $1 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 5. Those plans went kaput when the 4-year-old son of Runhappy was ruled out of the race due to a bruised heel in his right foot.
Trainer Kenny McPeek took Smile Happy out of the Whitney equation on July 30.
“Underneath his right front foot, towards the heel, he has had something that has been kind of niggling at him,” McPeek said. “He has always been a difficult horse to train, but it seems like lately the thing was bugging him a little bit more than we thought.”
McPeek said that Smile Happy was being checked out at the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Saratoga Springs after being evaluated by Dr. Larry Bramlage.
“We wanted to make sure it was not anything but the foot, and that is what it is,” McPeek said.
With the latest development, McPeek said Smile Happy is “sort of in a holding pattern.” He said the colt will be pointed to the Sept. 30 Lukas Classic Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs.
Smile Happy has won four of nine career starts and last raced in the Stephen Foster Stakes (G1) at Churchill, where he finished fifth.
Following an eighth-place effort in last year’s Kentucky Derby (G1), Smile Happy missed nine months with a bone bruise. This injury is not related.
Rattle N Roll wins the Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs
McPeek said that stablemate Rattle N Roll will be pointed to the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) at Saratoga on Sept. 2.
There had been talks of possibly having Rattle N Roll go to California for the Pacific Classic (G1), also on Sept.2, but McPeek said that as of now that race would be “unlikely.”
Rattle N Roll, also owned by Lucky Seven Stable, was a game runner-up to West Will Power in the Stephen Foster in his last start.
