David Milch's Echo Eddie will not run in Sunday's $200,000 A.G. Vanderbilt Handicap (gr. II) at Saratoga. After performing a routine temperature check on the gelding yesterday, trainer Darrell Vienna's assistant, Scott Chaney, determined Echo Eddie was suffering from a severe fever.
Echo Eddie had flown in from California late Thursday evening.
"We treated him yesterday and his temperature is normal now," Chaney said. "It's pretty disappointing. He traveled so well."
Chaney said he did not know where Echo Eddie would start next, but said Saratoga's $250,000 Forego Handicap (gr. I) at six and a half furlongs on September 1 was highly unlikely.
"He's a better six-furlong horse," Chaney said. "I think Darrell wants to get the horse back out to California."
