Sesamoid Injury Ends Career of High Yield

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Multiple grade I winner High Yield's racing career is over, trainer D. Wayne Lukas confirmed on Saturday, after the son of Storm Cat--Scoop the Gold, by Forty Niner, suffered a fractured sesamoid while in training at Churchill Downs. "It's the type of injury where he probably could have come back after a long layoff, but he's too valuable to do that," Lukas said. The partnership of Robert and Beverly Lewis, Mrs. John Magnier, and Michael Tabor purchased High Yield for $1,050,000 at the 1998 Keeneland July yearling sale from the consignment of Eaton Sales, agent for Brushwood Stable, which bred the colt in Pennsylvania.

High Yield broke his maiden at Saratoga last August, then came right back to win the Hopeful Stakes (gr. I), and placed in three other stakes at two, including a third-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I). At three, High Yield won the Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. I) and Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I), and finished second in the Florida Derby (gr. I). He was a disappointing 15th in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) and a non-threatening seventh in the Preakness Stakes (gr. I), his last start. High Yield won four of 14 starts and earned nearly $1.2 million. Lukas said stud plans were not confirmed for High Yield, but he assumed the colt would stand at Ashford, the Versailles, Ky., farm that is part of John Magnier's vast Coolmore operation.

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