By Bill Finley
'TDN Rising Star' Maximus Mischief (Into Mischief–Reina Maria, by Songandaprayer), who entered his 3-year-old season with a perfect three-for-three record, which included a win in the GII Remsen S., has been retired due to a soft tissue injury.
The news was first reported by the Daily Racing Form.
Trained by Butch Reid, the $340,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old started his 2019 season off with a third-place finish at odds-on in the GII Fasig-Tipton Holy Bull S.
“It's a real shame,” said Chuck Zacney, whose Cash is King Stables owns the horse in partnership with Glenn Bennett's LC Racing. “We had high hopes for this horse. It's a tough sport, a tough game.”
The connections did not give up on the colt after the Holy Bull and kept him in training in an attempt to make the GII Xpressbet Fountain of Youth. He even had a workout on Feb. 24, 22 days after the Holy Bull. But Reid could see that his horse was not right and he was soon thereafter taken out of training.
“Quite frankly, it's tendon tear,” Zacney said. “We went to vets and looked at it and they said he would need a minimum of six to nine months off. Then there would be training after that. We had already been getting calls from farms in Kentucky, so we had to make a choice between retiring him and trying to get him back racing. It was very unlikely that he would come back to his old status; it was highly unlikely he'd be as good. They said he'd be maybe 80 to 90% of what he was and it would not have been fair to do that to the horse.”
Maximus Mischief is currently at Eisaman Equine in Ocala, FL, and Zacney said they will begin showing him to farms starting next week. It is too late in the breeding season to rush him off to stud this year.
“We had raised the possibility that he might race again,” Zacney said. “Now that that is off the table, we're hearing again from farms in Kentucky and looking forward to finding him a nice home there and him having a great breeding career there.”
Zacney, who owned 2005 GI Preakness and GI Belmont winner Afleet Alex, appeared poised to have a spectacular 2019. He is also the co-owner of 2018 2-year-old filly champion Jaywalk (Crosswalk). She is still on target for the GI Kentucky Oaks, but will come into the race off defeats as the heavy favorite in the GII Davona Dale and the GI Ashland.
“With Maximus Mischief, it ended way too soon,” Zacney said. “We came into the year thinking we had the best 3-year-old on the East Coast and we certainly thought we'd be in the big race in early May. It just wasn't meant to be.”
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
