McKinzie Likely To Miss The 2018 Kentucky Derby

With the Kentucky Derby only a few weeks away, horse racing fans gave been looking forward to what is expected to be a very exciting race with no clear cut favorites. However, they likely won’t see one of the contenders run the mist exciting two minutes in sports because of an injury.

After returning from the Dubai World Cup, trainer Bob Baffert told reporters that he doesn’t think McKinzie will be healthy enough to run in the Kentucky Derby due to a recent injury.

According to reports, McKinzie, who was considered the favorite to win the Kentucky Derby in last week’s Derby poll, suffered a hind leg injury that has yet to be clearly diagnosed.

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Previously McKinzie was set to participate in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby. Baffert pulled him out if the race to avoid making the injury worse. Baffert told reporters he didn’t want to do anything rash and try to work out the horse. He wouldn’t even let McKinzie jog around the track on Monday.

“We’ve got to do more tests,” said Baffert. “He’s sound, but a nuclear scan we did wasn’t 100 percent. It doesn’t look serious, but we’ve got to wait. His X-rays are clean. But he tweaked something.”

Horse racing fans had been looking forward to McKinzie participating in the Santa Anita Derby for quite some time. This is because it would have been a rematch with Bolt d’Oro. Bolt d’Oro controversially defeated McKinzie at the San Felipe Stakes a couple of weeks ago.

With McKenzie effectively ruled out of the Santa Anita Derby and Kentucky Derby, Baffert said he will put Justify in. Justify will be put in the race to replace McKinzie. If Justify wins or places, he will have enough qualifying points to run in the Kentucky Derby next month.