Joseph: White Abarrio continues to recover from recent illness

Back in the barn of his original trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., reigning Breeders’ Cup Classic winner White Abarrio continues to recover from an illness that appeared to trouble him when he finished off the board last month in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap.

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“We’ve been taking it easy with him. No plan on what race we are going to go to yet,” Joseph said Friday. “He’s been in light training, but as far as what we are going to do with him, we haven’t decided just yet. Probably will have two easy weeks, and then we will set everything in stone and come up with a game plan.

“His blood work still hasn’t come back right. We are waiting on his bloodwork to come back around. It hasn’t got to the point where we want it yet.”

A millionaire, 5-year-old son of Race Day owned by C2 Racing Stable, Prince Faisal and Antonio Pagnano, White Abarrio finished a distant fifth June 8 in the Met Mile on Belmont Stakes day at Saratoga. It was his last race for Rick Dutrow, who trained him to wins last year in the Whitney (G1) and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

White Abarrio was transferred to Dutrow while Joseph was serving a temporary suspension handed down by Churchill Downs after the death of two horses in the troubled buildup to the 2023 Kentucky Derby.