Multiple stakes winner Ivan Fallunovalot, the 2015 Texas Horse of the Year, is unlikely to run in the $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) on April 10 at Oaklawn because of lingering problems with a quarter-crack, trainer Tom Howard of Hot Springs indicated Saturday morning.
Howard said Ivan Fallunovalot hasn’t returned to the track since a half-mile workout in :48 Sunday morning at Oaklawn because his left front foot is “still a little tender” and time is running out to make the Count Fleet, a race the Valid Expectations gelding finished second in last year.
“It’s going to be close, very close,” Howard said. “We haven’t pulled the plug yet, but it’s very close.”
After winning the $100,000 King Cotton Stakes Jan. 30 at Oaklawn in his 2016 debut, Ivan Fallunovalot developed a quarter-crack on the inside of his left front foot in late February.
The injury was patched, but it forced Ivan Fallunovalot to miss a scheduled start in the $100,000 Hot Springs Stakes March 5 at Oaklawn. Sunday’s work was the first for Ivan Fallunovalot since Feb. 13.
“We’ve changed up some things up and just giving it a few days to settle down,” Howard said. “But I’m running out of days.”
Owned by Lewis Mathews of nearby Bismarck, Ark., Ivan Fallunovalot has a 12-3-1 record from 21 lifetime starts and earnings of $536,910. He also won the $100,000 King Cotton Stakes in 2015 and finished ninth in the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
On behalf of Mathews, Howard claimed Ivan Fallunovalot for $25,000 at the 2014 Oaklawn meeting.
(from Oaklawn news release)