Alphabet Soup Out of Rematch

There will be no Alphabet Soup-Gentlemen rematch in the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 2.

An ankle injury will force Alphabet Soup, who won the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic in his final start of 1996, to miss the Big ‘Cap and it is uncertain how long he will be sidelined.

“He wrenched his left front ankle,” trainer Dave Hofmans said. “With an injury like this we have to be cautious.”

Hofmans says the injury might have occurred during the San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 2, a race in which Alphabet Soup lost by three-quarters of a length to Gentlemen.

“[Jockey] Chris [McCarron] said that at the half-mile pole, [Alphabet Soup] ducked in and he felt something,” Hofmans said. “But then he seemed all right. He was fine for the next couple of days, but when we took him back to the track, his ankle filled up.”