Wild On Ice was euthanized Thursday after suffering a left-hind leg injury at the end of a pre-dawn workout at Churchill Downs.
Felix Chavez of the El Paso Times reported the news in a Twitter post, saying he was informed by the colt's owner Frank Sumpter.
Wild On Ice was in the Kentucky Derby 2023 field after winning the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby.
Daily Racing Form’s Mike Welsch was first to Tweet about the accident after Wild On Ice breezed five furlongs in what was officially reported as 1:01.4 before being pulled up on the backstretch at about 5:40 a.m. EDT.
“Wild On Ice was evaluated at the Churchill Downs equine medical center and was subsequently transported to Lexington (Ky.) to an equine surgical facility for further evaluation,” a Churchill Downs spokesperson said in a written statement at 7:15 a.m. EDT. “Trainer Joel Marr and jockey Ken Tohill, who was aboard for the breeze, were en route to Lexington as well.”
One onlooker told Horse Racing Nation that the Tapizar gelding walked onto the equine ambulance without a cast or splint on his injured leg.
The injury was a cruel coincidence for Marr, who was looking forward to having his first Kentucky Derby horse. Five years ago he brought Sunland Park Oaks winner Blamed to Churchill Downs only to have her suffer a hairline fracture to her right-hind leg during a workout the week before the Kentucky Oaks (G1).
Tohill, 60, was in line to become the oldest jockey ever to ride in the Derby.
With Wild On Ice out, Skinner moves from the top of the standby list and into the main field of 20. The third-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) has been working out for trainer John Shirreffs in California.
“We’ll keep Skinner on his schedule,” Shirreffs said Sunday to the media team at Santa Anita. “If we hear something early enough, we’d go, but if we don’t, I don’t know.”
Skinner would be due for a breeze this weekend.
Wild On Ice was as long as 120-1 Thursday morning in Las Vegas futures for the Kentucky Derby. Skinner, still only a maiden winner in six starts, was 35-1.
