Perfect Sting (Red Ransom--Valid Victress, by Valid Appeal) won 14 of 21 races and $2,202,042 for trainer Joe Orseno. She won the April 14 Black Helen Handicap (gr. IIT) in her first start this year. Her earlier triumphs included additional grade I turf scores in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes and Garden City Breeders Cup Handicap.
Frank Stronach's homebred Perfect Sting has been retired from racing because of a leg injury she sustained in the June 9 Manhattan Handicap (gr. IT) at Belmont Park. The 5-year-old mare suffered a torn tendon in her right front leg while finishing sixth. She was sent to Stronach's Adena Springs South near Ocala, Fla., following the race to recuperate. Adena officials felt there wasn't enough time for her to return to tip-top shape to run in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT) this fall so the decision was made to retire her. Perfect Sting won last year's running to clinch championship honors as best grass female."Right now, she's being hand walked, and after a couple more weeks of that, she'll be placed in the field," said Dan Hall, who manages the Adena Springs operation in Central Kentucky. "There is no need for surgery. If you looked at her walk, you wouldn't even know she's hurt."