Saturday's Grand Slam I program at Calder lost one of its marquee players when owner-breeder-trainer Stanley Ersoff scratched 6-year-old Band Is Passing from the $100,000 Tropical Turf Handicap (gr. III)."He's fine now," said Ersoff, "but he had a little swelling in an ankle Thursday morning. I think it might have just been a little allergic reaction of some kind from a topical lotion, or something like that. We put him in ice and it came right down."In any event, I never want to run him when I'm not as sure as I can be that he is 100 percent. It wouldn't be fair to the horse or to the public. It was just a matter of exercising due caution."
Band Is Passing was listed as the 5-to-2 morning line favorite for the Tropical Turf, a race he won last year. The son of Pass the Line also had finished second in a dead heat in the 2000 renewal.
