Dortmund Out of Clark Handicap
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Dortmund wins the 2015 Big Bear Stakes.
Kaleem Shah's grade I winner Dortmund will not contest the $500,000 Clark Handicap (gr. I) Nov. 27, according to a Nov. 24 report in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert told sports writer Jonathan Lintner that the 3-year-old son of Big Brown did not ship from California after developing a quarter crack following his Nov. 21 work at Santa Anita Park, five furlongs in a handy :59 2/5.
Winner of the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I), San Felipe Stakes (gr. II), Robert B. Lewis Stakes (gr. III), and Los Alamitos Futurity (gr. I), Dortmund returned to racing Oct. 24 with a win in the Big Bear Stakes at Santa Anita after sitting out the summer following his fourth-place finish in the Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes (gr. I) and a third in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I).
COURIER-JOURNAL: Baffert's Dortmund Out of Clark Handicap
"What happened was, he worked, and he worked really well, but he came back and had a little quarter crack on the side of his foot," Baffert said. "Usually, you give them a couple days and then we can patch it, but it wasn't quite ready to patch and I didn't want to ship him and worry about the patch."
Dortmund is nominated to the $150,000 Native Diver Stakes (gr. III) at Del Mar, and could make that race instead.
Baffert will still be represented in Kentucky by defending Clark winner Hoppertunity, who comes off a second to Race Day in the Oct. 30 Hagyard Fayette Stakes (gr. II) at Keeneland, along with Kentucky Jockey Club (gr. II) contender Mor Spirit.