By Jessica Martini
Laddie Liam (Golden Lad), who topped the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December Sale when purchased by the Green family's D J Stable for $450,000 earlier this month, will miss an expected start in Wednesday's Jerome S.
“He shed a frog in his foot and he had a little bit of a tender frog and it's just not going to happen,” the colt's new trainer Gary Contessa said. “I've only had him three weeks. That frog was a little bit questionable when I bought him and he finally shed it and it's a little tender. So we're not going to do that.”
Laddie Liam was purchased by Joe Besecker for $14,500 at the 2018 Midlantic December sale and won the Dec. 7 Maryland Juvenile Futurity just days before highlighting the Besecker dispersal at this year's December sale.
The bay colt has worked twice over the Belmont training track for Contessa. He turned in a bullet five-furlong drill in 1:02.02 Dec. 22 and worked four furlongs in :48.23 Saturday.
“He's a big, neat horse,” Contessa said of Laddie Liam. “He has a very sound mind. He's just a neat horse to be around and he does everything right.”
Contessa said there are plenty of options for the almost 3-year-old.
“There are so many back-up plans,” he said. “I'll get together with the Greens when we get his foot right. We can go to the [Feb. 15] Miracle Wood [at Laurel], we can go to the [Feb. 8] Jimmy Winkfield [at Aqueduct]. Ultimately, we'd like to go to the [Mar. 7 GIII] Gotham. We can go to Tampa and run in the seven-eighths race [Jan. 18 Pasco S.] and then come back in the [Mar. 7 GII] Tampa Bay Derby. It's hard to say. Right now, my only thought is on making sure his foot is okay.”
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