Chester and Mary Broman’s Friend Or Foe, winner of last year’s
Empire Classic and most recently fourth in the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational,
likely will get some preventative time off due to a slight ankle issue.
“I just had to make a decision on
him,” said trainer John Kimmel. “He has some filling in one of his ankles and a
small area of fiber damage on the medial suspensory branch. It’s one of those
things that’s so minor, [that you could] stop or go. I think in this case, I’m
probably going to be conservative like I always am and shut him down for maybe
60 days.”
Friend Or Foe, who at one point
had been considered for this weekend’s Grade 1 Woodward and was also a
possibility for the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at
Belmont
Park on October 1, will instead target a
winter campaign.
“It’s so small, but it’s like the
little crack in the dyke,” Kimmel said. “He’s fine, and I’m sure we can run him,
but I think that those little things, when they get bigger, they’re very tough
to manage. I think that that’s probably the smartest thing to do. I’ll bring him
back at Palm Meadows, maybe, and get him ready for a winter campaign. It’s
disappointing.”