New Year's Day Retired Due to Injury
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New Year's Day, who upset favored Havana in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I), has been retired after sustaining an injury and will enter stud at Hill 'n' Dale Farms in Lexington.
Ben Glass, agent for owners Gary and Mary West, said Dec. 26 that the 2-year-old son of Street Cry trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert had sustained a non-displaced chip on the left hind sesamoid.
"We don't know what happened—whether he kicked himself coming off the track, or what," said Glass, adding that he was informed of the injury on Christmas Eve. "It was going to be a long layoff, regardless of what we did, so Bob (Baffert), myself, Gary West, and couple of veterinarians decided it would be in the best interest of the horse to retire him. Bob said he didn't want to have to hold his breath every time he breezed him. We would like to win more races with him but that's not in the cards.
"Disappointed isn't the right word for it," Glass continued. He noted that the colt's connections had been looking forward to next year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). "We had mapped out a plan to get three races for him to get him to the Derby. We were trying to do everything perfectly. He is sound today but we could not take the risk."
Hill 'n' Dale owner John Sikura said the 2014 stud fee for New Year's Day would be announced shortly.
Sent off at 10-1 odds while making his first start on dirt and without the anti-bleeder medication Salix (or Lasix) in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, New Year's Day rallied strongly up the rail to catch favored Havana inside the final sixteenth. He went on to win the 1 1/16-mile race at Santa Anita Park in 1:43.52.
Out of the grade II-winning Dixie Union mare Justwhistledixie, New Year's Day was bred in Kentucky by Clearsky Farms. Glass purchased the colt for $425,000 from the Clearsky consignment to the Keeneland September yearling sale.