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Owner Rick Porter initially thought he might get 3-year-old Normandy Invasion back to the races before the end of 2013, but confirmed Aug. 9 the Fox Hill Farms runner will miss the remainder of the season.
Normandy Invasion, fourth last time out in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) for trainer Chad Brown, will get at least 60 days at WinStar Farm near Lexington, Porter said.
The Tapit colt missed training in early July with a foot abscess that caused him to miss a planned run in the Aug. 24 Travers (gr. I), and was treated by hoof specialist Ian McKinlay. He returned to galloping at Saratoga Race Course in late July but did not breeze before Porter and Brown decided to let him sit out the remainder of the season.
"At first we were going to shoot for the (Sept. 21) Pennsylvania Derby (gr. II), then I started saying, 'Chad, you're never going to get this horse 100 percent right after this long of a layoff to the Pennsylvania Derby," Porter said. "It's not like we're going to use that as a prep for something; there's nothing else to run in. We're not going to run him in the Breeders' Cup with one race under him."
Normandy Invasion was sent to Kentucky earlier in the week for an inspection by Dr. Larry Bramlage of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital. Bramlage found nothing wrong with the colt apart from the hoof wall damage from the abscess his connections already treated.
"I do that quite often with a good horse, just have Larry check them out to make sure nothing else is wrong if we're going to turn them out anyway," Porter explained. "I wanted to get him checked out for any other issues. There's no reason to be pounding on him in training at this point of the year; I'd rather turn him out and let him be a horse, and after at least 60 days we'll decide when we're going to put him back in training."
Porter said the earliest Normandy Invasion could return to Brown's stable would be mid-October.
"There wouldn't be any reason to start doing anything sooner than that, because we're not going to run him until next year," Porter said. "We just don't have anything to gain by running him this year."
Normandy Invasion, bred in Kentucky by Betz/Kidder/Gainesway/Graves/D.J. Stable/Cole, is out of the Boston Harbor mare Boston Lady, and has a win and two seconds from six starts, with earnings of $400,240. Earlier this season, he was runner-up to eventual William Hill Haskell Invitational (gr. I) winner Verrazano in the Wood Memorial (gr. I).
