Barbaro’s brother scratched from Virginia Derby with hind leg injury

Barbaro’s brother scratched from Virginia Derby

PROVIDENCE FORGE, Va. — Barbaro’s brother, Nicanor, was scratched from the Virginia Derby because of a leg injury. The race at Colonial Downs on Saturday would have been the stakes debut for a horse whose bloodlines have made him a fan favorite.

“He did something. He hurt himself behind,” trainer Michael Matz said Friday. “We’re not exactly sure what it is.”

He said the injury to the left hind leg apparently occurred during a gallop this week and became evident when the horse worked out Thursday in Maryland.

“I took him out last night and he wasn’t 100 percent,” Matz said.

Matz was planning to bring Nicanor to the track Saturday morning for the $750,000 Grade 2 race. Nicanor was listed as the morning line favorite.

Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby in 2006, but shattered three bones in his right hind leg in his opening strides of the Preakness.

Barbaro then defied the odds by surviving eight months and enduring close to two dozen operations before he was euthanized because of laminitis. The often life-threatening problem develops when horses shift weight to one leg to keep pressure off an injured limb.

Along with sentiment, Nicanor’s results have also started to yield expectations. After failing to win in his first three starts on dirt, twice running second at Gulfstream Park, Nicanor moved to Delaware Park and won two consecutive starts on the grass.

The Virginia Derby is run on a turf course and is the second leg of the four-race Grand Slam of Grass. Colonial owner Jeff Jacobs is offering a $5 million bonus to any horse that wins the Turf Cup and Virginia Derby, both at Colonial Downs, as well as the Secretariat Stakes at Arlington and the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita.

The absence of Nicanor could be good news for Battle of Hastings, which won last month’s Turf Cup, as well as Straight Story and Lime Rickey, which ran second and third.