Just Steel will have surgery for condylar fracture

Just Steel, who finished fifth in Saturday's Preakness, came out of the race with a condylar fracture in his right front leg.

“We’ve got to put a pin in it,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. “He'll be all right.”

David Grening of Daily Racing Form said in an X post that the D. Wayne Lukas trainee will be examined by Dr. Larry Bramlage Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital.

Lukas speculated that the injury might have taken place as the field was turning for home. Lukas figured that Just Steel, running fourth under Joel Rosario, was in position to challenge stablemate and winner Seize the Grey.

“He was perfectly placed,” Lukas said. “There was a point there in the race that I thought we would be 1-2. I really thought that Just Steel was going to run at this horse and make it interesting. Obviously, that hampered any strong finish. But he was right there and Joel came off that turn and I said, ‘Whoa, we're going to get a lot of this. I really felt like we'd be 1-2 at that point.”

Just Steel was 17th in the Kentucky Derby. The Justify colt is 0-for-6 this year, with his best result a second-place finish behind Muth in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. In other starts on the Kentucky Derby trail, he was seventh in the Rebel (G2) and second to Mystik Dan in the Southwest (G3).

Last year, he won two of seven starts, breaking his maiden on third try at Saratoga in July and winning the black-type Ed Brown Stakes at Churchill Downs in November.

Owned by BC Stables and Henry Schmueckle, he was purchased for $500,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale.