Recepta Suffers Career-Ending Injury

Graded stakes winner Recepta, co-owned and co-bred by John Phillips, suffered a career-ending injury during training at Saratoga Race Course Friday morning.

According to trainer Jimmy Toner, Recepta was galloping on the main track when the exercise rider felt something off in her right hind leg. She was vanned off the track and transported to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital for further examination where it was determined the 5-year-old daughter of Speightstown   suffered a fractured pelvis.

"I was watching her and she went around the (final turn), and you can't really see her from here," Toner said. "I didn't see her come around and then the lights and siren went off."

Bred by Phillips in partnership with Hank Snowden and campaigned by Phillips and Pam Gartin, Recepta finished second by a nose in the Diana (gr. IT) on Saratoga's opening weekend.

Toner said the next 30 days will be critical as Recepta will need to remain standing until the fracture heals enough to enable her to move around. It's expected she'll then need six months of stall rest. If possible, that time would be spent at a nearby farm.

"It's just a freaky thing. She was happy and doing so good; she galloped yesterday," Toner said. "I don't care about her coming back [to race]. I just want her to be OK." 

Out of the Honor Grades mare Honor Bestowed, Recepta is by 2004 Eclipse champion sprinter Speightstown  . She won the Noble Damsel Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Belmont Park last September and is multiple graded-stakes placed, a runner-up to Celestine in the Longines Just a Game (gr. IT) on the Belmont Stakes undercard.