Injured Sky Jack Is Retired

Sky Jack, the morning-line favorite for today’s $250,000 California Cup Classic and winner of the race in 2000, has been retired because of another injury to his surgically repaired right knee.

Doug O’Neill, trainer of the 7-year-old gelding, said Friday that Sky Jack would be retired to the Temecula farm of Rene and Margie Lambert, who bred and raced the horse. Sky Jack is a son of Jaklin Klugman, out of the Skywalker mare Sky Captive.

“They’ve been joking for some time that they have a pasture out there with Sky Jack’s name on it, and now the time has come to send him there,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill noticed some heat Friday morning in Sky Jack’s knee, which has undergone three operations.

“It was an easy decision,” O’Neill said. “He’s at the top of his game, but I just wouldn’t want to take a chance. I have nightmares about something happening to this horse in a race. Anything like that would simply have crushed me.”

O’Neill, the leading trainer at the Oak Tree meeting that ends Sunday, still has 12 other horses running in other Cal Cup races today.

“We could still have a big day,” O’Neill said. “But of the 13 horses, Sky Jack was the one I wanted to run the most.”

With Sky Jack out, the betting favorite for the Classic probably will be Hot Market, who hasn’t run in 10 months.

“We didn’t decide to run until about a week ago,” said Craig Lewis, who trains Hot Market. “Originally, we considered the Sprint, but I’ve been able to put some air in him in his workouts, and we think he’ll be ready for the mile and an eighth.”

Hot Market last won in the On Trust Handicap at Hollywood Park about a year ago. Usually a horse who forces the pace, he lost all chance in last year’s Classic by rearing at the start, then finishing fifth.

Another top contender is Grey Memo, who has earned $1.7 million but is on an 11-race losing streak and hasn’t won since August 2002. Grey Memo was fourth in last year’s Classic, which was won by Calkins Road. Badly beaten in his only two starts since then, Calkins Road is a longshot in today’s nine-horse field.

The highlight of Sky Jack’s 18-race career was his narrow victory over Momentum in last year’s Hollywood Gold Cup.

“That was right after surgery No. 2,” O’Neill said. “It’s incredible that that horse got a mile and a quarter that day.”

Late in 2000, Sky Jack registered consecutive wins -- in the Cal Cup Classic, which is restricted to California-breds, and against open company in the Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park. Sky Jack won the Native Diver by seven lengths but then was sidelined for more than 14 months.

Sky Jack won 10 races, added two seconds and two thirds and earned $1.1 million.