Concrete Rose Out Rest of Year With Hairline Fracture

Ashbrook Farm and BBN Racing's grade 1 winner Concrete Rose will miss the rest of the season due to a hairline fracture in her right foreleg. Trainer Rusty Arnold confirmed Aug. 18 the fracture is expected to heal "100%."

Concrete Rose has won all four of her starts this year, including the first two legs of the New York Racing Association's inaugural Turf Tiara—the July 6 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T) and Aug. 2 Saratoga Oaks Invitational Stakes. She was under consideration for the Sept. 7 Jockey Club Oaks but will now be out of training for 90 days.

Arnold said Concrete Rose came out of the Saratoga Oaks well and went back to the track after a few days off, but he didn't think the Twirling Candy  filly looked perfect on the track.

"We took a bunch of X-rays—didn't find anything. Walked her a couple days, jogged her a couple days, took her back to the racetrack, and I didn't think she was good," Arnold said. "We took some more X-rays that were inconclusive—didn't find anything. Took her back one more time, and then the day before yesterday we took some more.

"We sent them off to a couple people in Lexington. They both agree she's got a tiny start of a hairline fracture in her right front. It needs no screws, it needs no surgery. Probably in 60 days they'll re-radiograph her, and supposedly she'll be back in training in 90."

Dr. Larry Bramlage at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital and Dr. True Baker at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute both reviewed the X-rays.

"We wanted a second opinion, so we sent them to both places and we got the same opinion from both," Arnold said.

Plans are in the works for Concrete Rose to be sent to a farm. She is currently with Arnold's string at Saratoga Race Course.

Arnold said the hairline fracture is not considered to be career-threatening.

"You wouldn't even know it if you didn't gallop her. I just didn't think her stride was as fluid as it had been, and neither did the rider," he said. "She came back, she walked fine, she jogs fine, but something just wasn't perfectly right. Hopefully we found it at an early time, and we're going to get her back in good shape and have her as a 4-year-old."