Afleet Alex Has Surgery on Leg

The Haskell Handicap and the Travers, a pair of $1-million races for 3-year-olds, will be missing both of this year’s Triple Crown stars with the announcement Thursday that Afleet Alex has undergone leg surgery.

Afleet Alex, winner of the Preakness in a dramatic finish after he stumbled and almost fell, and a runaway winner of the Belmont Stakes, is the divisional leader and one of the favorites for horse of the year, but he has now been sidelined until the fall.

Giacomo, the Kentucky Derby winner before he ran third in the Preakness and seventh in the Belmont, underwent surgery for bone chips on June 28 and may not run again this year.

Afleet Alex, who ran third in the Derby, was X-rayed Tuesday at Belmont Park and found to have a hairline condylar fracture of the lower left front cannon bone, just above the ankle. A screw was inserted, to fuse the break, on Wednesday at the New Jersey Equine Clinic in Clarksburg.

The Haskell will be run at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., on Aug. 7, and the Travers is scheduled for Saratoga in upstate New York on Aug. 27.

There were no indications from the Afleet Alex camp that his injury is career-threatening.

“I’m looking forward to his return,” trainer Tim Ritchey said. “The book’s not over. There are more chapters to this story. This is a bump in the road that I believe he will overcome.”

The long-range goal for Afleet Alex is the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 29.

Afleet Alex, who has won eight of 12 starts and earned $2.7 million, was high-weighted at 123 pounds for the Haskell. His absence is likely to beef up what had been expected to be a small field. Two contenders -- Roman Ruler and Surf Cat -- are stabled at Del Mar. Roman Ruler, the Dwyer winner at Belmont, and Surf Cat, who won the Swaps at Hollywood Park, are weighted at 119 pounds.