Hollywood Gold Cup winner’s surgery ‘went well’

Mr Fisk and jockey Kazushi Kimura win the Hollywood Gold Cup on Monday at Santa Anita Park. (Benoit Photo)

Hollywood Gold Cup winner Mr Fisk had surgery on his injured right foreleg Tuesday after being vanned off the track following the race at Santa Anita on Memorial Day.

Trainer Bob Baffert gave an encouraging update on the 4-year-old colt’s condition Tuesday night.

“Surgery went well,” Baffert said in a text message. “(He’s) back in his stall.”

Mr Fisk suffered a condylar fracture but his prognosis was “excellent,” Baffert had tweeted Monday night.

No more details were available about the injury, the surgery or the horse’s future.

Mr Fisk won the $200,000, Grade II Hollywood Gold Cup by 2¼ lengths, finishing strongly to pull away from stablemate Reincarnate in the final yards.

As the runners galloped out, though, jockey Kazushi Kimura pulled up Mr Fisk in the clubhouse turn and dismounted. Mr Fisk was taken off the track in a van and returned to Baffert’s barn.

Outside the winner’s circle, Kimura was heard reassuring Baffert that the injury didn’t appear serious but he felt Mr Fisk was “off” after crossing the finish.

Baffert later tweeted praise for Kimura for taking care of Mr Fisk by pulling him up.

The tweet included video of the horse “resting comfortably in his stall, ready for dinner” before reporting the existence of the condylar fracture and plans for surgery.

Condylar fractures are among the most common equine injuries. In the best cases, racehorses who suffer them are able to return to competition.

The injury in a famous Southern California race comes in an era of heightened awareness of equine injuries.

Santa Anita has seen a decline in catastrophic injuries during races in the current season, according to data on the California Horse Racing Board website.

There has been one equine death attributed to musculoskeletal injury in a race at Santa Anita from Dec. 26 through Monday, down from three, two, six and four in the same period of time in the first four years that the CHRB has been posting data.

Deaths because of injuries in training have been more common than average, though, with five horses dying this season, compared to two, five, one and four in the same part of the calendar in recent years.