In this March 28, 2009 file photo released by Gulfstreatm Park, Quality Road, with jockey John R. Velazquez up, heads toward the finish line to win the Florida Derby horse race at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. Kentucky Derby contender Quality Road has developed another quarter crack and his status for the Run for the Roses next Saturday is in question.
/ AP Photo.Gulfstream Park, Adam Coglianese, File
NEW YORK (AP) — Quality Road is out of the Kentucky Derby.
Expected to be among the favorites, Quality Road missed a final workout Monday morning at Belmont Park and was declared out of Saturday's Run for the Roses by trainer Jimmy Jerkens.
"We couldn't train him so we decided we couldn't run him," Jerkens said. "He just isn't sound enough."
Quality Road developed a quarter crack on his right hind foot late last week, and missed significant training. He galloped Sunday on Belmont's training track, and Jerkens found a spot of blood on the newly patched crack.
On Monday morning, Jerkens noticed the colt's foot was sore and that he was favoring it. A quarter crack on the 3-year-old colt's right front foot had recently healed.
"You're just kidding yourself if you think you can go out there and run in the biggest race in the world and haven't trained," Jerkens said. "It's a shame because he's so talented."
Quality Road has won 3-of-4 starts, including the Fountain of Youth Stakes and the Florida Derby, where he beat another top Derby contender in Dunkirk.
Jerkens, the son of Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens, was looking to send out his first Derby starter.
On Sunday, hoof specialist Ian McKinlay worked on the foot and said the horse was on the mend but warned: "This is live tissue we're not changing a flat tire, so there are a lot of judgment calls."
