Champion Work All Week (City Zip–Danzig Matilda, by Repriced) has been retired from racing due to a stress fracture discovered in his knee during a routine scan. The Midwest Thoroughbreds homebred most likely suffered the injury during his third-place effort in Keeneland's GIII Phoenix S. Oct. 2.
“Sometimes he gets heat in his ankles, so we were doing a routine check on him,” said Midwest Thoroughbreds's Richard Papiese. “We decided to go ahead and check his knees for no reason except just to be thorough and we found a stress fracture that likely occurred during the running of the Phoenix. There was no pulse or heat, but there was just enough for us to have to stop on him.”
Papiese added, “We are so lucky we decided to check, because it could have set him up for a slab fracture and that could have been catastrophic. To bring back as a 7-year-old [next year] would be a big risk and he's already done so much and given us so many highs that I would not risk his health and happiness. It's not a tragedy and the glass isn't half empty–it's full because he isn't shattered.”
Work All Week retires with a record of 19-13-4-1 that includes seven black-type victories and earnings of $1,511,071. A two-time Illinois Horse of the Year, the 6-year-old gelding earned the Eclipse award for champion sprinter last term after a course-record setting victory in the 2014 Phoenix and a 19-1 upset of the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita Nov. 1.
The chestnut kicked off this term with a pair of runner-up efforts in both the GIII Aristides S. at Churchill May 30 and the GII Smile Sprint S. at Gulfstream July 5. His sole victory of the season came in Mountaineer's Senator Robert C. Byrd Memorial S. Aug. 1 prior to his effort in the Phoenix last time.
“After all the tears, the good thing is that we still have the horse and he goes out as a reigning Eclipse champion, Breeders' Cup champion and the best sprinter ever in Illinois–and he doesn't go out in an ambulance,” Papiese said. “You feel bad for the horse because all he wants to do is run and compete, but this is the right thing to do. We will keep him in [trainer] Roger [Brueggemann]'s barn for now and then possibly make him into a pony. He loves to be at the track.”
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