By Tim Wilkin
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Book'em Danno (Bucchero), the even-money morning line favorite for Saturday's $500,000 GI Forego Stakes, cast himself in his stall sometime Friday night and was withdrawn from his title defense, trainer Derek Ryan said.
“What are you going to do?” Ryan said by phone. “That is the racing game for you. He was tearing the barn down like a madman. He will probably be fine tomorrow, but we don't race tomorrow.”
Book'em Danno was going for his sixth graded stakes race win at the Spa. He had won two of his three starts this year and had won five of his last six races. The only loss came by a neck in the GII Carter Stakes at Aqueduct on April 4.
He had arrived in Saratoga on Friday from Ryan's base at Monmouth Park.
Ryan said that when he arrived at the barn on Saturday, Book'em Danno just didn't seem right.
“We jogged him, gave him a bath and he just seemed off,” Ryan said, “He is not 100% right and we can't run them if he is not 100% right.”
The ultimate goal for this year is the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31. Ryan said he will have to figure out the best way to get him there. He expects there will be another race before the Breeders' Cup.
He mentioned the $250,000, seven-furlong GIII Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont Park on Sept. 26 as a possible target.
Book'em Danno has won 12 of 19 career races. His five prior stakes wins at Saratoga are the GII True North Stakes twice (in 2025 and 2026), the GII Vanderbilt Stakes last year, the Forego last year and the GI Woody Stephens Stakes in 2024.
“He's out here standing and eating grass, the big dummy,” Ryan said. “He was perfect yesterday, this morning he was not. We will get him back (to Monmouth)} in the next day or two and see where we are at.”
With Book'em Danno out, Ryan said he would not be watching the Forego.
“For what?” he said. “I might go to a river and go rafting.”
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