Sam Houston: Now 9, Force Freeze returns after long absence
http://www.drf.com/news/premium/sam-...r-long-absence
Nice work by Mary Rampellini covering all sides...
Force Freeze, now 9, will be making his first start since winning the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Sprint Championship on Feb. 18, 2012 in the five-furlong turf sprint. In addition to his win in the Gulfstream Sprint Championship and his runner-up effort in the Breeders’ Cup, Force Freeze also finished a close second in the 2011 Vosburgh.
He will be racing for new owners, Eric and Randi Moreau-Sipiere, and a new trainer, Jerenesto Torrez.
Force Freeze’s layoff was necessitated by a tendon injury sustained in an April 2012 workout in Florida. He was diagnosed with an 80 percent core lesion tear in his right front tendon, said Peter Walder, who trained Force Freeze at the time.
Walder said the veterinarian’s recommendation was no less than a year off, if not retirement. Force Freeze was then shipped to a farm in Texas to recuperate.
“I told them I had things lined up for him to go to Old Friends,” Walder said of the retirement home for high-profile racehorses.
In his time away from the track, Force Freeze has been “babysitting” yearlings at the Dallas-area farm of Moreau-Sipiere, who had served as a racing manager for the horse’s previous owner, Saeed Naser al Romaithi. Moreau-Sipiere said he privately purchased Force Freeze in a package deal of horses, and put him back in training last summer with Torrez at Retama Park.
“We’re very excited,” Eric Moreau-Sipiere said Wednesday. “It’s been a long process, and we’ll see what the horse tells us. He looks like he’s really happy. He’s training fantastic. If the horse shows us this is something he does not want to do, we’ll put him back in the pasture with a new group of yearlings.”
Moreau-Sipiere said he had a horse with a similar injury return to race with success in the past, so he decided to give Force Freeze a chance at a comeback after he received clearance from a veterinarian. He said “extensive ultrasound” tests were performed on Force Freeze.
“The vet said, ‘It looks fantastic. He should come back,’ ” said Moreau-Sipiere.
Walder said when Force Freeze showed up in the entries on Tuesday, his “phone started blowing up.” He said he has a deep respect for the horse, and would ideally like to see him retired to Old Friends.
Force Freeze shows four published works for his return, between Retama and Sam Houston, part of the regular circuit followed by Torrez, a leading trainer in Texas who won 37 of 216 starts in 2013. Force Freeze will break from the rail, under jockey Ernesto Valdez-Jiminez.
Force Freeze began his career at Oaklawn Park, when he won his debut in a $20,000 maiden claimer on Feb. 9, 2008. He was later sold privately, and spent some of his career in Dubai before returning to North America and reaching his peak under the tutelage of Walder.