| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Eclipse Award winner Golden Apples retired
Sunday August 03, 2003DEL MAR, Calif. (AP) Golden Apples, last year's Eclipse Award winner as the nation's top female turf horse, has been retired because of injury.
Trainer Ben Cecil discovered Saturday that Golden Apples injured the suspensory ligament in her left front leg. She finished in a three-way deadheat for second behind Megahertz in last week's John C. Mabee Handicap at Del Mar.
``It's one of those things that every trainer dreads finding out,'' Cecil said Sunday. ``She can jog on it. She's perfectly happy. If you ran your hand down the leg you wouldn't know it was there. But it is there. She's been very good to us and she deserves the right treatment.''
The 5-year-old mare had six victories, six seconds and two thirds in 16 career starts and earned $1.1 million for owner Gary Tanaka, who lives in London.
Golden Apples began her career in Ireland and came to Cecil's barn in 2001, when she won the Del Mar Oaks. She never finished worse than fourth under his care.
Among her victories last year were the Beverly D. at Arlington Park and the Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita.
Cecil said Tanaka probably will put Golden Apples in a sale either this November or in foal next November.
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