from the Virginia Thoroughbred Blog:

According Chris Baker, manager of Edward P. Evans' Spring Hill Farm in Casanova, homebred Quality Road has been withdrawn from consideration for Saturday's Cigar Mile Gr.I at Aqueduct. Entries for the race will be taken tomorrow.

According to Baker the horse continues to do well and the QR team has decided to simply focus on a "productive 2010 starting at Gulfstream Park."

Quality Road, who set track records in two graded stakes wins as a three-year-old, has been the victim of some bad luck with the weather this year prior to his incident at the Breeders Cup.
Baker said all the extensive gate schooling since the Breeders’ Cup had to be done anyway, and he extends his gratitude to the NYRA gate crew for all their help.

“They’ll be seeing the horse again plenty, so all that effort was for a good reason and it answered a lot of questions for us and how effectively this horse will be able to race next year,” Baker said. “Granted, he hasn’t started in a race yet, but all that schooling gave us a lot of confidence that his experience at Santa Anita is not going to affect him next year.”

Baker said there were several factors involved in their decision, including the weather forecast for the weekend.

“They’re expecting rain starting Thursday night and continuing all through Friday, and it’s expected to end early Saturday morning, so you may or may not have a fast track, and we prefer to have a fast track,” Baker said.

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