Saratoga: Smile Happy will miss Whitney with bruised hoof

Smile Happy will miss the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga on Saturday because of a bruise on his right front hoof.

“I don’t have time to get it sorted out,” trainer Kenny McPeek told Horse Racing Nation on Sunday. “Really needed to work him today or yesterday, and that’s not going to happen.”

The 4-year-old Runhappy colt “galloped really well” at Saratoga on Friday, McPeek, according to a report by the New York Racing Association.

Smile Happy is 2-for-4 this year, opening with an optional-claiming allowance win at Oaklawn in his first start since finishing eighth in the 2022 Kentucky Derby. He won the Alysheba (G2) in May ahead of Art Collector and West Will Power and then was fifth last out in the Stephen Foster (G1), won by West Will Power.

Smile Happy, owned by Lucky Seven Stable, had been working at Churchill Downs before shipping to Saratoga, most recently breezing four furlongs in 49.00 seconds on June 24.

NYRA had listed Rattle N Roll, another McPeek trainee owned by Lucky Seven, as probable for the Whitney, but McPeek told HRN on Sunday that he’ll be pointed to the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

The 4-year-old son of Connect is “doing super,” McPeek said, adding that he decided to wait for the 1 1/4-mile race on Sept. 2 rather than start him in the Whitney.

Other probables listed by NYRA were Charge It, Cody’s Wish and Zandon. Brad Cox told Paulick Report that West Will Power also was a possibility, as was the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Trainer Dale Romans told HRN on Sunday that with the small projected field, he was considering entering Giant Game in the Whitney.