General Challenge worked a mile Tuesday, covering the distance in 1:37 2/5 on a fast track.A winner of nine of 18 career starts, the Bob Baffert-trained General Challenge is unraced since finishing fourth in last year's renewal of the Pacific Classic, a race he won as a 3-year-old the previous year. Also as a 3-year-old, he won the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) before finishing a disappointing 11th in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I).
Golden Eagle Farm's homebred General Challenge will miss his scheduled start in the July 7 Bel Air Handicap (gr. II) at Hollywood Park after the 5-year-old gelding suffered an undisclosed leg injury while training last week, according to a North County Times report."It is disappointing," Mabee told the paper from his Golden Eagle office in Ramona, Cal. "It's typical of a horse coming back. We're putting ice on it and trying to get the swelling down."According to the report, General Challenge suffered the injury during his morning work on Tuesday at Santa Anita, and the Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I) and Pacific Classic (gr. I) winner will be sidelined from three to four months.