Metaboss Retired After Injury on Turf Course

Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT) entrant Metaboss has been retired after suffering a small fracture in a sesamoid during a routine gallop on the Santa Anita Park turf course Nov. 2. 

Trainer Phil D'Amato credited exercise rider Jose Dominguez for possibly saving Metaboss' life. D'Amato said Dominguez felt something was off immediately and pulled the 4-year-old son of Street Boss   up.

"He has a small piece off of his right-front sesamoid," D'Amato said. "While it's not life-threatening, it is career-ending. It does not require surgery, but it'll end his racing career. He'll be comfortable with time and hopefully the owners are looking at standing him.

"He was working great. It was just kinda one of those things. He took a bad step and luckily my rider felt it right away and pulled him up. That could have been the difference between a much worse outcome."

Metaboss was coming into the Nov. 5 Turf off a fourth-place finish in the John Henry Turf Championship (gr. IIT) at Santa Anita Oct. 2. Prior to that, he ran second by a nose to fellow Turf entrant Ashleyluvssugar in the Aug. 20 Del Mar Handicap Presented by The Japan Racing Association (gr. IIT).

D'Amato, who also galloped Juvenile Turf (gr. IT) entrant Bowies Hero on the grass Wednesday, did not blame the accident on the turf course's condition, but was already planning on galloping the son of Artie Schiller   on the training track Nov. 3.

"All my horses had pulled up well off (the turf course)," D'Amato said. "It's just one of those things where you take a bad step, like anybody else could, and that's it. Bowies Hero galloped great on it, but this could have happened in a race—it could have happened any time."

Campaigned by an ownership group headed by Blue Skies Stables and MRS Stables, Metaboss retires with three wins from 12 starts and $300,420 in earnings.