Mulroy faces 'complicated' decision with Future Is Now
Tracy Mulroy, co-owner of Future Is Now, said her decision about what direction to take with the 5-year-old mare was complicated by her veterinarian’s scratch from the Grade 2 Franklin at Keeneland on Sunday.
Retirement after the Franklin had been an option, Mulroy told Horse Racing Nation on Monday, “but that decision was going to be made after this race. It's a much more complicated decision now.”
Mulroy expressed her frustration with the scratch in X posts Sunday, one of which was deleted.
“My emotions got the better of me, and I should have held off before I tweeted,” Mulroy said. “But it's obviously incredibly upsetting to have your heavy favorite in a feature race at Keeneland scratch in the last race of the season for her and potentially ever. And the connection to my dad makes it a very emotional issue. She's not just a horse. She is incredibly special and meaningful to us.
“So it felt like we got robbed yesterday, and that was my frustration.”
Future Is Now, winner of last year's Franklin, was bred in Maryland by Mulroy’s late father, Larry Johnson. She is now co-owned by Mulroy and her sister, Kelly Caraballo, through Johnson’s estate.
Mulroy is still frustrated, but she said a Keeneland representative called her to say track officials were sorry the scratch occurred.
“They didn't want it to happen either,” Mulroy said. “… They don't have any control over the state vet.”
Dr. Nick Smith, chief racing veterinarian for the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation, and Gabby Gaudet, Keeneland's director of communications, did not reply to requests for comment left Monday morning.
Future Is Now, trained by Michael Trombetta, was the 7-5 morning-line favorite for the Franklin, which was won by Time to Dazzle for trainer Mark Casse at 3-1. It would have been the first race for Future Is Now since Aug. 15, when she won the won the Smart and Fancy Stakes at Saratoga.
“Time to Dazzle ran a wonderful race,” Mulroy said. “I mean, she really ran a beautiful race. She has a fantastic future. I'm not going to take anything away from her. I wish we'd been in there to run against her, but she ran a great race.”
Regarding what’s next, Mulroy said “there’s no rush” to have a complete examination because she was done for the year anyway. “I don't want to put her through all the works and all that entails if we're going to retire her.”
Trombetta has little doubt that Future Is Now was sound for the Franklin, and he also was frustrated by the scratch.
“Respectfully, I disagreed with their decision, but their decision is final,” Trombetta said Monday. “That's a bit of a problem for us in the industry. We work really hard to bring these horses to the races and try to do the right things. They're looking for nothing less than perfect, and we don't live in a perfect world.”
Trombetta said he was told that Future Is Now was scratched because “they just thought that she wasn't traveling quite right.”
He said she was examined by his private veterinarian at Fair Hill before traveling to Kentucky, “and she signed off on her. And then my private veterinarian at Keeneland has to do a sign-off on them at entry time. Both of which had no issue with her. But we get out there, a new set of eyes look at her, and then they see an issue.”
Trombetta said he understands that commission veterinarians don’t have an easy job.
Still, he said, “I have no leverage in this situation. But I've been around this horse since she was 2, and she looked the same to me as she did last race, last season, and the year before that,” Tombetta said. “They’d seen her for the first time, perhaps, yesterday ever. And they took issue with what they saw, and I strongly disagree with their opinion, and I have the right to do that. But at the end of the day, they win every time because what they say goes and we have to live with it.”