DENALI FOALED AND RAISED BREEDER’S CUP JUVENILE TURF CHAMP PLUCK BACK IN TRAINING

Team Valor International and The Vinery’s Pluck, who won last year’s Breeder’s Cup Juvenile Turf (gr. IIT) at Churchill Downs, will be returned to training June 28.

Pluck in the spring was diagnosed with bone bruising on his canon bones, which necessitated him being turned out in a grass paddock for two months. Radiographs reviewed June 27 by Dr. Larry Bramlage at Rood & Riddle Veterinary Clinic near Lexington revealed that both bones had healed, Team Valor said in a release.

Bramlage advised trainer Graham Motion the 3-year-old More Than Ready colt bred by Team Valor could return to training. Team Valor said Pluck would jog on the Tapeta surface at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland.

“We are very happy to be able to put the horse back into training,” Team Valor chief executive officer Barry Irwin said in a statement. “It’ll probably take Graham the better part of four months to get him back to the races, but at least we are back in action.

“We’ve had a few horses with this same aliment before, and they were able to make it all the way back to their previous form, the most notable of which was Unbridled Belle, who went on to win the grade I Beldame and earn nearly $2 million for our stable.”