'Truly Special' Omaha Beach Will Continue To Be Evaluated Ahead Of Breeding Season
Mandella with Omaha Beach (Ryan Thompson photo)
Scratched from his career swansong in the Pegasus World Cup after x-rays revealed the beginnings of a fracture in his right hind ankle, Omaha Beach is scheduled to ship to Spendthrift Farm on Monday. According to drf.com, additional x-rays will be performed when the 4-year-old son of War Front arrives, in order to ensure that Omaha Beach will be able to start the breeding season without further compromising the ankle.
“We’ll do follow-up X-rays to see if there’s any change one way or another, and formulate a plan from there,” Ned Toffey, the general manager of Spendthrift Farm, told drf.com. “We’ll have our vet get together with Dr. (Larry) Bramlage (the diagnosing veterinarian). I’m cautiously optimistic he can start the breeding season on time, but if he can’t, he can’t.”
Trainer Richard Mandella noted a small amount of swelling in the hind ankle after the colt trained on Thursday, and x-rays examined by Dr. Bramlage indicated the beginnings of a fracture, necessitating the scratch.
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Also scratched the week of the Kentucky Derby due to an entrapped epiglottis, Omaha Beach has managed to show a good bit of his talent in his 10 starts on the track. His first major victory came in the G1 Arkansas Derby, after which the Derby scratch kept him away from the races for six months. Upon his return, Omaha Beach showed he was also a capable sprinter with wins in the G1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship and G1 Malibu. Between those two victories, the colt ran second in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.
“He’s a bad-luck horse,” owner Rick Porter told horseracingnation.com. “And it’s just really a shame because he was never able to show people how good he really is. Richard knows it, and [jockey] Mike Smith knows it, but the people were never able to fully see it. The good news is he’s safe. The bad news is he didn’t have a chance to show how truly special a horse he really is.”
Omaha Beach retires with a record of five wins, four seconds and a third in his 10 starts, for earnings of $1,651,800.
