Palace Malice Injured, Retired

Dogwood Stable's Palace Malice, a classic winner last year and winner of this year's Metropolitan Handicap (gr. I), has been retired following the discovery of a bone bruise in his left hind cannon bone.

The 4-year-old son of Curlin  —Palace Rumor, by Royal Anthem, won seven of 17 career starts and earned $2,676,135. At 3 he won Belmont Stakes (gr. I) and Jim Dandy Stakes (gr. II) and at 4 won his first four starts impressively, including the Met Mile, which he got in 1:33.56. In what became his final start, he finished a poor sixth in the Whitney Stakes (gr. I) Aug. 2 at Saratoga Race Course.

"Clearly he wasn't himself in the Whitney," said Cot Campbell, president of Dogwood. "He went off at 3-5 and it was kind of a foregone conclusion that he'd win. He ran an uncharacteristic race and he had a couple of subsequent works where he was not himself. We sent him to Rood & Riddle. After scintigraphy they discovered the bruise which could turn into something worse if we raced him, so obviously that was the end of the line.

"The frustrating thing they said was that within 60-80 days it (the bruise) would make itself right and he could potentially have a full year next year. I've alerted all of the breeders that have expressed interest in him to step forth and that he's available and in Kentucky."

Palace Malice broke his maiden in his second and final start at 2 at Saratoga. At age 3, he was third in a blanket finish in the Risen Star Stakes (gr. II) in his stakes debut and second, beaten a neck in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I).

Equipped with blinkers for the first time by trainer Todd Pletcher for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), Palace Malice galloped off with the early lead under Mike Smith, setting a wicked :45.33 opening half in the slop before fading to 12th.

He rebounded in dramatic fashion, winning the 1 1/2-mile Belmont by 3 1/4 lengths, topping Preakness Stakes (gr. I) winner Oxbow   and Derby winner Orb  . He added the Jim Dandy prior to a fourth-place finish, beaten by less than a length, in the Travers Stakes (gr. I). Palace Malice then ran second against older horses in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. I) and was unplaced when shipped to Santa Anita Park for the Breeder's Cup Classic (gr. I).

At 4 Palace Malice tore through his first four starts, winning the Gulfstream Park Handicap (gr. II), New Orleans Handicap (gr. II), and Westchester Stakes (gr. III) before the Met Mile.

"I thought the Met Mile, with the trouble he had and the post he had (one), was a remarkable race," Campbell said. "He's been wonderful; always right there. In the Whitney, when he wasn't fighting at the end, you knew it wasn't him."

Curlin is currently the leading third-crop sire with more than $5.8 million in earnings in 2014. Bred by William S. Farish, Palace Malice was a $25,000 Keeneland September sale yearling in 2011. Dogwood purchased Palace Malice for $200,000 out of the following year's Keeneland April sale of 2-year-olds in training.

"His career has been a wonderful thing at this stage of my career; I've enjoyed it to the utmost," Campbell said. "I'd like it to continue, but he doesn't owe us a thing."