Free House will miss the remainder of the year after a nuclear
scan revealed a torn ligament in his left hind leg sustained during a very game runner-up
effort to Real Quiet in the Pimlico Special on May 8.
Winner of the Santa Anita and San Antonio Handicaps in his first two starts this season, California’s defending Horse of the Year was shipped to Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., for the $500,000 Pimlico Special. Two years previously in the Preakness Stakes, the dappled-gray Cal-bred pushed Kentucky Derby hero Silver Charm to his utmost limits and fell only a head short of capturing the second jewel of racing’s Triple Crown. The outcome of the Pimlico Special was no less exciting, as Free House battled Real Quiet stride-for-stride from the far turn to the wire and only surrendered to last year’s Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner in the final surge at the finish.
Breeder-owner Trudy McCaffery believes Free House may have hurt himself breaking away from the gate, a revelation that made his second place effort all that more courageous.
"Chris (jockey Chris McCarron) told me that Free House gave a mighty push out of the gate," she said, "but he was kind of gawking after that, which wasn’t like him. He was very reluctant to put away that other horse (25-1 Fred Bear Claw) until midway around the turn."
Free House got very lame in the test barn and couldn’t put any weight on his left hind leg. He had to be transported back to the stakes barn by horse ambulance. The Free House team feared at first the horse had done some damage to his ankle or hock, but early x-rays taken at Pimlico did not reveal any fractures. He was taken to Churchill Downs for the nuclear scan, and it revealed a torn ligament from his hip to his spine.
"The prognosis is excellent," she said. "The vets are saying he’s going to need 90 days off. But when they say three months, I automatically add two more. That’s it for the year. We’re not going to rush him back."
McCaffery, who owns Free House with John Toffan, said that the horse would spend the summer at their ranch in Bradbury, Calif. "He doesn’t have to be let down at the racetrack. We want to get him home. It’s very sad. It would have been a fun summer."
The injury means Free House will not defend his title in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar in August or start in the $1 million Hollywood Gold Cup on June 27.