Bound For Nowhere Done for the Year

Bound For Nowhere (The Factor), a distant 11th behind Next Shares (Archarcharch) in the GI Shadwell Turf Mile Oct. 7, has been turned out for the rest of the year, the 4-year-old's owner and trainer Wesley Ward told the TDN Tuesday.

A $310,000 Keeneland September graduate, Bound For Nowhere turned in a spectacular performance to defeat recent GII Woodford S. winner Bucchero (Kantharos) in the GII Shakertown S. at the Keeneland spring meeting ahead of an outstanding and very close third to Merchant Navy (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. at Royal Ascot in June. Ward stretched Bound For Nowhere back out to a mile–with both the GI Breeders' Cup Mile and GI Turf Sprint under consideration–and the colt responded with a smooth victory in the $750,000 Tourist Mile at Kentucky Downs in early September. That set the table for a start in the Shadwell, but little went according to script, Ward said.

“It's a bit of a head-scratcher,” he said. “He's usually a very calm horse, but [jockey] Julio [Garcia] said he got really hot. The scratch [at the gate of Divisidero {Kitten's Joy} really got him thinking and it took a long time for him to get in the gate. From there, he had a beautiful trip from the outside, got over and settled, but Julio said at the three-eighths, there was nothing there. He was certainly stressed out and he didn't like the soft [course].

Ward continued, “We gave him a good once-over at the vet and we didn't find anything. Things just didn't work out, but I would hate to go into the Breeders' Cup off a race like that, so we're putting up the white flag for the year. I kicked him out into a paddock and we'll bring him back Jan. 1 and try to have a year in 2019 like we had this year.”

Ward also said he was satisfied with the performance of Undrafted (Purim), seventh in the Woodford. The 8-year-old gelding is a candidate for a $75,000 allowance going 5 1/2 furlongs over the Keeneland turf Oct. 25, Ward said.