Country Grammer Sidelined by Ankle, to Head to WinStar

WinStar Farm's grade 1 winner Country Grammer  has been sidelined with an ankle injury and will not run in the Aug. 7 Whitney Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, a race he was being considered for. The 4-year-old Tonalist   colt has been based in New York with trainer Todd Pletcher since June and will head to WinStar in Versailles, Ky., to recover.

"(Pletcher) went to work him Friday morning and he had some filling in his ankle and didn't want to work him. X-rayed it and diagnostically looked at it; it was clean but the next day there was even a little more filling, so he's kind of acutely wrenched it," WinStar president, CEO, and racing manager Elliott Walden said July 25. "We're going to send him home. He'll probably need at least 30 days to get over it, so there's no reason for him to sit in a stall at Saratoga."

Walden added that Dr. Larry Bramlage of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital will also have a look at Country Grammer's ankle.

The Daily Racing Form's David Grening first reported that Country Grammer had been sidelined.

The Whitney would have been Country Grammer's first start since moved to trainer Todd Pletcher. Previously on the West Coast with Bob Baffert, he won the May 31 Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park. WinStar purchased the colt for $110,000 from the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, where he was consigned by Lane's End, agent for the complete dispersal of the estate of the late Paul Pompa Jr.

Country Grammer last worked five furlongs in 1:01.65 July 17 on Saratoga's main track.

Pletcher is also the receiving trainer of WinStar and China Horse Club's 3-year-old Life Is Good . The Into Mischief   colt completed his first breeze for Pletcher July 24, clocking a half-mile in :48.88 on the Oklahoma Training Track at Saratoga.

"It was good, very pleased with his first work here," Walden said. "Came out of it good and we got that one behind us, so that's good." 

Also previously trained by Baffert, Life Is Good is undefeated in three starts, which include the March 6 San Felipe Stakes (G2) and Jan. 2 Sham Stakes (G3), both at Santa Anita. He was taken off the Triple Crown trail in March and underwent surgery to remove a small left hind ankle chip. The bay returned to the work tab in late June for WinStar's farm trainer Destin Heath at Keeneland. 

Race plans will start to come together for Life Is Good after the colt breezes a few more times, Walden said, and he is expected to be ready to return to the races between late August and mid-September. Walden ruled out the Aug. 28 Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga.

The New York Racing Association announced May 17 that Baffert was temporarily suspended from racing at Saratoga, Belmont Park, or Aqueduct Racetrack after his trainee Medina Spirit  failed a post-race drug test following a first-place finish in the May 1 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs. A United States district judge granted Baffert a preliminary injunction in his lawsuit against NYRA July 14, ruling that NYRA is prevented from enforcing its suspension given to him, pending a final hearing.