Ten City trainer ‘never lost a horse with such talent’

By Jonathan Lintner

Trainer Kenny McPeek expected a better Sunday than he had a Saturday considering the events that unfolded in Keeneland’s Grade I, $500,000 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity.

McPeek’s Ten City ran to the lead near the sixteenth poll before pulled up by jockey Corey Lanerie and vanned off. Later, McPeek announced, the 2-year-old colt was put down with a condylar fracture suffered to his left-front leg.

The trainer took to social media Sunday, thanking fans “for the notes of support.” He added that “in 32 years training, I’ve never lost a horse with such talent in such an important race. Hard to understand.”

McPeek is known for conditioning juvenile standouts with the likes of Take Charge Lady, plus former Breeders’ Futurity winners Tejano Run (1994) and Noble’s Promise (2009) having passed through his barn. Ten City flashed similar potential, looking like a Grade I winner until his misstep in the Breeders’ Futurity.

Before Saturday, the colt by Run Away and Hide won his first two starts, including Churchill Downs’ Grade III Bashford Manor in June, and finished third in two other stakes tries. Should he have finished his run at Keeneland, Ten City would have been considered the top Kentucky Derby prospect to watch aside from Bolt d’Oro, an undefeated star racing on the West Coast.

McPeek’s social media message finished, “We will keep doing our best in a tough game. See you at the races.”