Injury Ends Racing Career of Safely Kept

Safely Kept, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint and the national champion sprinter in 1989, was retired after a training injury was discovered Thursday.

Safely Kept had been scheduled for shipping to Churchill Downs for the Sprint on Nov. 2 but after a workout at a farm in Middletown, N.J., an examination showed that she had suffered a pulled suspensory ligament in the right foreleg.

Safely Kept will be sent to Denali Stud in Lexington, Ky., where she will be bred next year to a stallion to be announced.

Safely Kept, a 5-year-old mare, was sold for $300,000 halfway through 1990 and has raced for Barry Weisbord and Richard Santulli since then. She finished her career with 24 victories, two seconds and three thirds in 31 starts, with earnings of $2.1 million.

Housebuster, who defeated Safely Kept in their only meeting this year, will be favored in the Sprint. The field is down to 13 starters and there are no horses on the alternates’ list.