ELMONT, N.Y. - Mo Donegal, the Belmont Stakes winner and among the leaders of a wide-open 3-year-old male division, will likely miss the remainder of the year with bone bruising, his connections said Saturday.

A press release issued Saturday afternoon by his co-owners, Donegal Racing and Mike Repole, said Mo Donegal would be taken out of training for 60 days and be reevaluated thereafter. Trainer Todd Pletcher said Mo Donegal would not be back in time to make any major races this year, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November at Keeneland.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Travel Column made a smashing 4-year-old debut as an easy winner of a seven-furlong allowance Wednesday at Churchill in her first race since being turned over to Bill Mott. Owned by the OXO Equine of Larry Best, the gray Frosted filly got an 89 Beyer in her first start in more than a year.

OXO racing manager Don Chatlos said Travel Column will return to Saratoga, where she had prepped for her comeback, with the Aug. 27 Ballerina being a possible target. Travel Column was a two-time Grade 2 winner when previously trained by Brad Cox.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Letruska, the reigning champion in the filly-mare dirt division, breezed a half-mile Friday in 48 seconds over a fast track at Churchill in her first work since she was virtually eased as the odds-on favorite in the June 11 Ogden Phipps at Belmont.

Trainer Fausto Gutierrez said the 6-year-old mare will remain at Churchill in the coming weeks prior to making her next start in the Aug. 27 Personal Ensign at Saratoga. “She is doing good,” said Gutierrez.

Happy Jack to Jerkens

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Conagher isn’t running in the seven-furlong Maxfield on Sunday at Churchill Downs primarily because of rules pertaining to Lasix, according to trainer Mike Tomlinson.

“I wanted to postpone him running without Lasix one more time,” said Tomlinson.

With that, Conagher either will run in the $250,000 Iowa Derby or $300,000 Indiana Derby, both to be run next Saturday at 1 1/16 miles. State rules for both of those races allow for Lasix treatment, whereas the bleeder medication is banned for all stakes in Kentucky.

Senor Buscador, who spent a brief time on the Kentucky Derby trail in 2021, makes his first start since that year’s Risen Star in Sunday’s eighth race at Lone Star Park. He has been prepping for his return at Ruidoso Downs. 

Senor Buscador showed promise at 2, when he won both his career debut and the Springboard Mile at Remington Park. He went on to finish a troubled fifth in the Risen Star and later sustained an injury that kept him out of further preps for the Kentucky Derby. Sunday is his first race since the Risen Star.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Eric Reed said Rich Strike has “pretty much been taking it easy” since the 2022 Kentucky Derby winner returned to his Mercury training center in Lexington shortly after the June 11 Belmont Stakes.

“We’ve all been trying to relax, take everything in, look back on exactly what happened these last couple months,” Reed said Friday after watching some of his lesser-known runners breeze over the five-furlong oval at Mercury. “We never really had time to appreciate all this, if that makes any sense.”

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Kenai Bob will attempt to win the $75,000 Assault Stakes for the second year in a row later this month at Lone Star Park. 

Trainer Francisco Bravo said the July 17 race is the target for Kenai Bob, who is coming off a victory in the track’s Texas Hall of Fame Stakes. The Assault is one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up bred in Texas. It’s the main event on Stars of Texas Day. 

“I think one more race at Lone Star, then we might give him a little time off, kind of look for something next year,” said Bravo. 

Mary Forney and Jack Owens have retired from executive positions with the Thoroughbred Owners of California, the organization announced on Thursday.

The retirements were effective Friday. The TOC is the state’s official horsemen’s representative on regulatory and legislative matters as well as business with racetracks on issues such as purses.

Led by the graded stakes winners Becca Taylor and Elm Drive, the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos on Monday has a projected field of seven fillies and mares.

The $200,000 Great Lady M. Stakes is run at 6 1/2 furlongs and is the richest race of the three-week Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Los Alamitos, which continues through July 10.

The Great Lady M. was scheduled to be drawn at midday Friday.

Dance to the Music, second in the Grade 3 Desert Stormer Stakes for female sprinters at Santa Anita on June 4, will miss Monday’s Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos.

Trainer Mark Glatt said on Thursday that he would prefer a longer gap before Dance to the Music’s next start. The Desert Stormer was Dance to the Music’s second start of the year, preceded by a win in allowance race on May 7.