Travers Winner Unshaded Out for Year With Injury

Two weeks after Unshaded won the Travers at Saratoga and thrust himself into the national rankings, the 3-year-old gelding has been injured and will be out for the year.

Carl Nafzger, who trains Unshaded for owner Jim Tafel, said Friday that the horse strained a tendon in his left foreleg and will undergo surgery Monday in Lexington, Ky. Nafzger is optimistic that Unshaded will recover to run again next year, but he’ll still be in rehab when the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the original target, is run at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

Unshaded’s injury further jumbles a 3-year-old division that has been topsy-turvy since three different horses won the Triple Crown races. Fusaichi Pegasus, a convincing winner of the Kentucky Derby, ran second in the Preakness on May 20 and hasn’t raced since. Red Bullet, who won the Preakness, is out for the year, and Commendable, who beat a depleted field in the Belmont Stakes, has been a disappointment since then and finished a well-beaten third in the Travers.

The 3-year-olds were so strong a year ago at this time that many horsemen were predicting one of them would win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and that’s what happened when Cat Thief prevailed at Gulfstream Park.

“As a group, the 3-year-olds aren’t as strong as last year,” trainer Elliott Walden said recently. “No decision has been made about whether Ecton Park will come back next year [as a 5-year-old], but that could be one of the reasons to stay around. The 3-year-olds have made for a muddled year.”

Unshaded’s Travers win was his fourth in nine starts. He’s also had one second and three thirds, with earnings of $1 million. He was not nominated for the Triple Crown races--a $600 fee that could have been paid in January--and that forced Tafel to pay a supplementary penalty of $100,000 to run in the Belmont. Despite wilting in the New York heat, Unshaded finished third, giving his owner a profit of $10,000.

In this week’s national poll, Unshaded was ranked ninth. The only other 3-year-old in the top 10 was Fusaichi Pegasus, who was fifth.

Horse Racing Notes

Spanish Fern, whose recent races have been unimpressive, has been scratched from today’s Ramona Handicap. . . . David Copperfield, who beat Fusaichi Pegasus in a 1999 maiden race at Hollywood Park before the Kentucky Derby winner began racking up stakes wins, and Purely Cozzene are the favorites in Sunday’s $300,000 Del Mar Derby. David Copperfield will make his first start since Thoroughbred Corp. bought him in July for $2.6 million in the Marshall Naify dispersal auction. Sunday’s 10-horse field includes the filly New Story, a French shipper who’s won one of five starts this year. Others entered are Generations, Designed For Luck, Credit Call, Walkslikeaduck, Sign Of Hope, Schotis and Duke Of Green. . . . Jockeys Corey Nakatani and Laffit Pincay are through for the meet, Nakatani still recovering from a collarbone injury and Pincay reportedly having undergone minor eyelid surgery. Pincay, who’s won a record 8,979 races, will resume his pursuit of No. 9,000 when the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita opens Oct. 4. . . . Bob Baffert saddled 1-2 favorite Spicy Stuff to win Friday night’s El Cajon Stakes, giving the trainer a record-tying 10th stakes win of the meet. Baffert has saddled 10 stakes winners at Del Mar twice before. Spicy Stuff, rebounding from a sixth-place finish in the Swaps at Hollywood Park, was ridden by Victor Espinoza, who had four winners on the card.