James Tate suffered a huge blow on Thursday as one of his stable stars for the season Far Above suffered a career ending injury just when he was primed to potentially hit the big time.
The lightly-raced four-year-old had only raced five times in his short career and looked like he was a star in the making having won on his seasonal debut at Newmarket in the Palace House Stakes to land a hat-trick of wins.
However, he returned lame after his impressive win but Tate thought that he would be getting better news about him during the week but it was not the case and the handler reported that the colt had injured a sesamoid in a front leg, which would see him never race again.
A star in the making?! 🤔🌟
— The Winners Enclosure (@TWEnclosure) June 7, 2020
FAR ABOVE made it four victories from five runs with success in the Group 3 Palace House Stakes at Newmarket yesterday 🐎💨
Trainer James Tate has labelled him as "The fastest i've ever had" 😱
🎬 @RacingTV pic.twitter.com/hNjt1SG9nW
(Credit AtTheRaces) Tate said: “Unfortunately it was the news we didn’t want.
“It’s a small injury, but a particularly awkward one in a tricky place.“It’s been a brilliant but brief career – who knows what could have been?
“You all got a glimpse of it in the Palace House, but from what we saw at home, we know just how good he could have been. He still wasn’t at 100 per cent on Saturday.
“The silver lining is that he can have a second career now, at stud. If he hadn’t won on Saturday that wouldn’t have been possible.
“We’ll try to bounce back. We’ve got Ascot next week and we’ll try to get on the board there.”