Colonial Affair Injured, Out of the Classic : Breeders’ Cup: Recent winner of Jockey Club Gold Cup suffers a broken leg. Frankel might enter Run Softly in race.

Colonial Affair, who would have been one of the favorites for the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, has been retired because of a stall injury suffered at the Louisville track on Saturday.

Colonial Affair, who scored a two-length victory over Devil His Due in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park this month, apparently was agitated by the arrival of other horses at his barn. The 4-year-old colt kicked the back wall of his stall and suffered a broken sesamoid bone in his right rear leg.

“He’s never been better in his life,” said Scotty Schulhofer, who trained Colonial Affair. “I felt like he could go out and get the job done. He loved the track, and he had been galloping like a champion.”

In his two starts before the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Colonial Affair was third, behind Holy Bull and Devil His Due, in the Woodward at Belmont and he won the Whitney Handicap by a nose over Devil His Due at Saratoga. Last year, Colonial Affair won the Belmont Stakes as his jockey, Julie Krone, became the first woman to ride the winner of a Triple Crown race.

Colonial Affair, who broke awkwardly and finished last in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, won seven of 20 starts and earned $1.6 million.

With Colonial Affair on the sidelines, the probable favorite in the Classic is Devil His Due, even though he has won only three of 10 starts this year.

Because of the lack of a standout, trainer Bobby Frankel will be on the phone today to Grant Pritchard-Gordon, the racing manager for Juddmonte Farms, trying to persuade him that Run Softly belongs in the Classic. Run Softly, a 3-year-old son of Deputy Minister who never has run on dirt, won Sunday’s Volante Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile grass race, at Santa Anita.

A year ago, Arcangues made his dirt debut at Santa Anita and won the Classic at 133-1. Frankel’s horses--Bertrando, Marquetry and Missionary Ridge--finished second, fourth and 11th, respectively.

“The Classic (this year) is not that strong of a race,” Frankel said. “It’s a Group III race and Run Softly is a Group III horse, so he ought to be in there. He’s bred for the dirt, he’s got a dirt foot (not big and flat) and the distance shouldn’t bother him.”

Frankel’s other Classic prospect, Tinners Way, will undergo surgery Wednesday for a knee injury and won’t race again until next year. Tinners Way won the Pacific Classic at Del Mar in August.

“The chances are 100% that he’ll come out of the surgery all right,” Frankel said.

Although Frankel’s barn led the country with $8.8 million in purses last year and the trainer won an Eclipse Award, his bad luck in the Breeders’ Cup continued. He is winless despite 22 starters in the 10-year series.

Frankel said Sunday that he will saddle Raintrap for the first time when Juddmonte’s Rothmans International winner runs in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Juddmonte will also run Sunshack and the filly Bolas in the Turf.

In another Classic development, John Mabee said that one of his contenders, Dramatic Gold, will run, but he will wait until today’s first-payment deadline to decide whether to supplement Best Pal.

“I’m not thoroughly convinced that we should run Best Pal,” Mabee said Sunday. “I’m going to sleep on it. The Breeders’ Cup has my credit-card number in case we decide to go.”