Injury Knocks What A Bad Day Out of Jockey Club

Elmer Miller's What A Bad Day, third in the Iroquois (gr. III), has suffered a knee injury and will not run in the $200,000-added Kentucky Jockey Club (gr. II) on Nov. 30.

The Carl Nafzger-trained son of Dehere apparently suffered the injury during a workout Wednesday. Assistant trainer Ian Wilkes said the gray colt injured his right knee in the drill and the injury could require surgery.

"He worked great -- he couldn't have worked any better," said Wilkes. "But he did not come out of the work good."

What A Bad Day breezed five furlongs in a sharp 1:01.60.

Miller's colt had overcome considerable traffic problems to finish a rallying third in the one-mile Iroquois and figured to be one of the favorites for the 1 1/16-mile Kentucky Jockey Club. What A Bad Day ran a distant 10th in his August debut at Saratoga, but won his next two races at Turfway Park and Saratoga by a combined total of 13 1/2-lengths.

The Kentucky Jockey Club has lost another contender, but a new name has been added to the prospective cast for the early Kentucky Derby prep. Trainer Robert Holthus said Kenneth English and Alan Braun's Iroquois runner-up Alke would bypass the Kentucky Jockey Club. Holthus said the son of Grand Slam probably would not return to action until the Oaklawn meet.

Meanwhile, trainer Nick Zito informed Churchill Downs racing officials that Double Diamond Farm's Eagle Eyrie, a son of Runaway Groom and the winner of a 7 1/2-furlong maiden race on Nov. 17, would run in the Kentucky Jockey Club.