By Jessica Martini
John Oxley's Airoforce (Colonel John) will bypass an expected start in the Feb. 13 GIII Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa Bay Downs with a minor illness, trainer Mark Casse confirmed Monday. The gray colt, off since winning the Nov. 28 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S., worked five furlongs at Palm Meadows Sunday in 1:00.25.
“He worked good and he galloped out decent, but after the work when he was cooling out, he just had his head down and he had white mucous running out of both nostrils,” Casse said. “When we scoped him, he had a fair amount of mucous, so we put him on some antibiotics and it is just going to take him a few days. We started him on them yesterday and today he was already jumping around and acting well.”
Airoforce could be re-routed to the Feb. 15 GIII Southwest S. at Oaklawn Park or the Mar. 5 GIII Gotham S., according to Casse, who wasn't overly concerned with the detour.
“We had always said that things had to go perfect for us to run in the Sam Davis and we just didn't think this was perfect enough,” Casse explained. “He has a lot of racing in him already, so it's not that big a deal.”
Airoforce has won three of four starts, with his only loss a runner-up effort in the Oct. 30 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. The colt captured the GIII Bourbon S. at Keeneland in his second start. His win over a sloppy Churchill track in the Kentucky Jockey Club was his first start over the dirt.
The same illness that knocked Airoforce out of consideration for the Sam Davis could also have affected stablemate Conquest Big E (Tapit), who ran fourth behind Mohaymen (Tapit) in Saturday's GII Holy Bull S.
“He struggled,” Casse said of Conquest Big E. “I don't know if it's because he was under the weather a little bit. But after the race, he had some serious, almost heatstroke. And the day after, he was very, very dull. We just started treating with antibiotics today, too because he was acting like he was getting sick.”
As for future targets for Conquest Big E, Casse said, “One thing we'll look for is maybe cooler weather somewhere. Possibly New Orleans or the Gotham and they may end up running against each other.”
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