BALTIMORE – Un Ojo will not enter in the Preakness Stakes (G1) after the foot bruise that kept the one-eyed gelding out of the Kentucky Derby flared back up.
“This morning his foot was a little warm again,” Louisiana-based trainer Ricky Courville said Monday morning by phone. “The vets went over him, and he’s not 100 percent. I’m dealing with the same thing. I guess the work kind of re-aggravated it.”
As with the Kentucky Derby, Un Ojo was withdrawn from the Preakness on the morning of entries. The New York-bred gelding, who won Oaklawn Park’s Rebel Stakes at 75-1 odds, had a five-eighths mile work Saturday at Churchill Downs and seemed to come out of that training move in good order.
“He looked really good (Sunday) morning, and in the afternoon they went and checked him out. He was a tad off, the foot was a little warm,” said Courville, whose son, Clay, has been overseeing Un Ojo in Kentucky. “This morning it was the same.
According to DRF’s Marty McGee, Fenwick may be joining the field. McGee announced this in a Tweet Monday afternoon. A call to the Pimlico Racing Office for confirmation was unsuccessful.
Fenwick finished 11th in his last start in the Toyota Blue Grass at Keeneland April 9. He won his previous race handily on March 12 at Tampa Bay breaking his maiden in his fifth start by 5 1/4 lengths at a mile and 40 yards under Paco Lopez earning an Equibase Speed Figure of 91.
Prior to that the chestnut colt had hit the board only in his first start placing second at seven furlongs under Luis Saez. Although his ESF was 82 his speed figures are up and down.
Bred by John C. Oxley in Kentucky, Fenwick is by champion sire and 2007 Preakness winner, Curlin out of Malibu Moon mare Make The Sun Shine.
Consigned by Gainesway, he was purchased at the Fasig-Tipton 2020 Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale by Villa Rosa Farm for $52,000.
Fenwick has a workout on May 13 at Churchill Downs breezing five furlongs in 1:00.80 racing 16/28.
The Preakness Stakes and Black-eyed Susan Stakes Post Position Draws are today at 4:30 PM EDT and can be streamed live on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Maryland Jockey Club Press Release/Edited
Photo of Un Ojo in a pre-Honeybee work by Coady Photography
