"The only problem is with the foot," Ellis said. "You couldn't even call that a work. Obviously he is not 100%. Sometimes you patch them and they are pain free. But that didn't happen. We gave it the old college try."Ellis said he would not set a timetable for when Atswhatimtalknbout might return to competition. "I am not going to have timetable for him now," Ellis said. "There are so many races out there and I think he is really going to be a good horse down the road. I took the patch off him and just want to get him back home and grow the foot back."Bred in Kentucky by R. and R. King Racing Stables, Atswhatimtalknbout has won two of six starts and finished second in the San Felipe Stakes (gr. II).
Trainer Ron Ellis ruled out a Belmont Stakes bid for B. Wayne Hughes' and Biscuit Stable's Atswhatimtalknbout on Thursday morning, saying the fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby will return to California and be given some time off while a quarter crack on his right front foot heals."We are going to fold up tent and bring him back to California and fix that foot up," Ellis said. "I don't want to just run and take a chance of hurting him or have him not run up to his capabilities.On Wednesday, Atswhatimtalknbout worked a mile at Churchill Downs in 1:46 4/5, much slower than his trainer wanted. The work was the first for the colt since bruising his right front foot. A quarter crack developed in the portion of the foot after an abscess opened and drained. In addition to the quarter crack, which was covered by a fiberglass patch for protection, Atswhatimtalknbout lost a shoe on his uninjured left front foot during Wednesday's workout.