Notably absent from the overflow field entered for Saturday’s Tom Benson Memorial Stakes, a turf route for older fillies and mares, was Nanda Dea, who would have been favored had she run.
A champion miler in Argentina, Nanda Dea won her North American debut last fall in a Keeneland allowance race. In her second start for trainer Ignacio Correas, she overcame significant trouble to capture the Albert Stall Memorial last month.
But less than a week after returning to training at Correas’s Keeneland base, Nanda Dea came out of a routine gallop showing signs of an injury and was diagnosed with a bone chip. Successful surgery was performed about three weeks ago and Nanda Dea’s prognosis is good, but Correas doesn’t expect the mare to race again until September or October.
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