2008 season over for Buck I St. Pat

Trainer Mickey Burke said Thursday morning that the 5-year-old trotting mare, Buck I St Pat, who surpassed $1 million in career earnings with her victory in the Perretti Farms Matchmaker at the Meadowlands in July, has been shut down for the rest of the year due to a slight tear in a tendon sheath in her right front leg.

Buck I St. Pat, who won 10 of her 14 starts this year, including a career-best and world-record clocking of 1:52.2f in the $250,000 Maxie Lee Memorial final at Harrah’s Chester in May, made her last start of the year in the Perretti Matchmaker—her 31^st career victory in 56 starts. The daughter of Jailhouse Jesse was entered the following week in the third leg of the Classic Oaks—she won the 2007 final—but was scratched after the tendon injury flared up.

“This is something we’ve been dealing with for nearly two years now,” Burke told harnessracing.com. “We’ve been able manage it and control it, but it blew up on her. We got it down and thought it was fine. That’s when she raced so well in the Meadowlands race (Perretti Matchmaker). The leg was perfect the next day and then the next day it wasn’t. That’s when we got concerned.”

Burke said an original diagnosis given was to quit with Buck I St. Pat, but on the advice of Dr. Michael Ross at the New Bolton Equine Center he remained optimistic as did her ownership group of  Howard Taylor, Edwin Gold, Abraham Basen and breeder Ron Fuller.

“(Dr. Ross) said to take her back and swim her for two weeks and then jog her, and then bring her back for evaluation,” he said. “We did exactly as we were told and he said after reviewing the second time that…the best course was definitely to quit with her.”

Burke said he turned down an invitation last fall to race Buck I St. Pat in the Gran Premio della Nazioni in Italy, and then again another invite this May from Solvalla officials to bring her to Sweden for the Elitlopp.

“Last year we were invited to that big race in Italy at the end of the year but I didn’t want her to go because she was a 4 year old against older horses. We were hoping we would have been invited back to the race this year because it was at the end of the year and because we all wanted to go,” said Burke. “And we made the right decision not going (to the Elitlopp) because we might have spun her wheels off over there.”

As for Buck I St. Pat’s immediate future, Burke said she is currently at the stable’s barn at Gaitway Farm in New Jersey—being hand-walked—and that he hopes to bring her to his Florida barn in November. He said after conferring with his son, Ron, they determined the best course of action for any racing schedule would be to limit her number of starts.

“We’re going to have to pick out her 10 or 12 starts and make them count,” said the 72-year-old Burke. “She won’t start training back until the first of the year and then she probably wouldn’t start until the end of April or early May, when we know we are going to be on pretty solid footing with her."

Burke said if Buck I St. Pat’s tendon injury doesn’t heal, then she will be retired.

“There’s an outside chance that she’s done but more than likely it looks like it will heal and we will be able to bring her back. If not, she has a breeding waiting to Muscles Yankee for winning the Perretti Farms race at the Meadowlands. She’s made a million dollars now so she has every right to be tried as a broodmare too.”

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