Nyala Farm’s Banrock, voted New York-bred champion
turf male and older male in 2009, will be retired from racing, trainer Tom Bush
said this week.
Banrock was scratched from the
West Point Handicap presented by Trustco Bank at
Saratoga on August 18 when he presented with
jaundice and elevated bilirubin levels the morning of the race. Shipped to
Mid-Atlantic
Equine
Medical
Center in
Lambertville ,
N.J. , for further evaluation, he was treated
successfully with anti-viral medication, but no specific diagnosis was ever
made.
“He looks really good and he’s
real happy in the barn,” Bush said. “I want to just watch him here for maybe
another week or so and then we’ll look for a van for him.”
Banrock will winter at the
Camden
Training
Center in
Camden , S.C. ,
where he has spent off seasons in the past, while his connections search for a
new home where the 8-year-old gelding can transition to a second career as a
riding horse.
“He’s always been very sound and
we want to find someone who will ride him, not just turn him out,” Bush said.
“He’s a nice ride.”
Banrock retires with a record of
12-5-4 and earnings of $830,815. A fixture on the New
York turf for the last five years, Banrock is a two-time winner of
the Kingston , West
Point , and Ashley T. Cole, and also won the Thunder Puddles and
Mohawk Stakes. The 2009 Mohawk was the most recent victory for the homebred son
of Go for Gin out of It’s a Gherkin, a mare also bred and campaigned by Nyala
Farm.