Moon Beam still a NA Cup possibility

After turning in a trio of very discouraging qualifiers so far this season, trainer Eric Abbatiello remains confident that Moon Beam will be at Mohawk for the Pepsi North America Cup eliminations on June 7. He was eligible to this Saturday's Burlington Stakes at Mohawk, but his connections have opted to bypass the event which will feature many of the top prospects for this year's $1.5 million NA Cup.

The colt, who was a runner-up to Somebeachsomewhere in last year's $1 million Metro Pace, made headlines when he was purchased by Howard Schneidler for $750,000 from January's Mixed Sale at the Meadowlands. This, despite the fact the son of Dragon Again sustained a knee injury toward season's end.

"Yes, paying that money for a colt who was injured in his 2-year-old season probably seemed a bit crazy to some people," said Abbatiello from his base in New Jersey. "But, many of these big owners are risk takers and that's how they've made their money. We knew he'd had a couple of chips taken out of his right knee and talked extensively to Dr. Patty Hogan about it. He got a clean bill of health after the surgery and we were confident about that end of it."

So, what has gone wrong this season?

"His return has not been good to put it bluntly," admits Abbatiello.

"But, knock on wood, we think we finally found the problem. After his last qualifier at Chester, where he stopped so badly, we took him to Dr. MacNamara at the Meadowlands who ran an EKG on him. He found that the colt had an irregular heartbeat and he felt it was something that might have been out of whack for a while."

The colt was then sent to the University of Guelph were doctors treated him and got the heart back into a normal rhythm. That was on Monday of this week and he is now back home in New Jersey where he is doing well.

Abbatiello plans to train the colt on the weekend and, if he comes out of it okay, it will be back on the trailer to Mohawk for the North America Cup eliminations.

"It's disappointing to miss The Burlington," he says. "However, we're glad that we think we know what the problem was. He is a very, big powerful colt and he has all the tools to be a top player. It's a long year and we want to do what's right for him." (WEG)

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