Injury Ends Career of Mazel Trick

The luckless $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar suffered another major loss Tuesday when Mazel Trick, Sunday’s probable favorite, suffered a career-ending injury during a workout.

Mazel Trick, winner of the San Diego Handicap here Aug. 7, joined Victory Gallop and Real Quiet on the sidelines because of damage to the sesamoid bone in his right ankle. Trainer Bobby Frankel said that Mazel Trick will undergo surgery later this week.

“I’m devastated,” Frankel said. “What are the words--we’re cautiously optimistic that he’ll pull through and have a great career as a stallion. Let’s put it this way, I’ve had horses with worse [sesamoid] injuries than this come out of it, but it will all depend on how the surgery goes.”

Victory Gallop, who would have been favored in the Pacific Classic, suffered a torn ligament, probably while winning the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga, and his retirement was announced Aug. 13.

Real Quiet, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness last year and first in this year’s Hollywood Gold Cup, stepped up as the new favorite, but he cracked a bone in his right foreleg while working out at Santa Anita on Aug. 13. Trainer Bob Baffert said Tuesday that although Real Quiet will miss the rest of the year, prospects are good he will race again in 2000.

Baffert, who will start General Challenge and River Keen in the Pacific Classic, was watching Mazel Trick’s workout on Tuesday.

“You could tell that when he got to the three-eighths pole, something happened,” Baffert said. “It looked like he took a bad step. Then [Chris McCarron] pulled him up. When you see these things, they’re gut-wrenching.”

In another training mishap Tuesday, one of Frankel’s fillies suffered a career-ending cannon-bone fracture. Frankel declined to name the filly before he had a chance to notify her owner.