Art Colony Retired

Three-time O'Brien Award-winning trainer Casie Coleman has told Trot Insider that Art Colony, the four-year-old son of Artsplace owned by Tom Hill of Great Britain, has been retired

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Coleman explained that Art Colony, who tore a suspensory in last year's Meadowlands Pace, reinjured the same suspensory again this week while jogging.

"He had been coming back great -- perfect, actually," Coleman said of the horse who from 13 starts has compiled a record of 5-7-0, $863,750 in purses and a mark of 1:51 taken at Mohawk Racetrack at two. "His attitude has been fantastic. He looks great and had been 100 per cent until this happened."

Coleman explained that Art Colony had been slow to come back to the racing wars by design (he hasn't paced a charted mile since the '09 'Pace'). "He's a big horse and that is one of the reasons we were bringing him back slowly," she said. "We had been swimming him a lot and going a lot of easy jogging miles with him.

"He re-injured the suspensory again the other day while going an easy mile. We took him over to Dr. Dan McMaster's and he took a look at him. Dr. McMaster confirmed that there is a small, partial tear to the same suspensory. He's sound on it, still, but it did blow up."

Coleman explained that given the unexpected turn of events, Hill is currently weighing his options. No plans have been made in regard to stallion duties for Art Colony as of yet.

With Art Colony's post-race career yet to be determined, Coleman told Trot Insider that she would not be totally shocked if Art Colony returned to the track to race again at some point.

"At this point I think Tom is going to just wait and see what kind of offers come in for him," Coleman explained. "If the offers aren't up to Tom's expectations, I wouldn't rule out seeing this horse on the track again."

From seven starts at two, Art Colony won four races, recorded three second-place finishes and banked $423,750 in purses. He won his Governors Cup elimination at Woodbine Racetrack in 1:51 before being beat by a head in the $820,000 final at week later in 1:51.2. Art Colony would go on to finish a close second in both his Breeders Crown elim and final to cap off his freshman campaign.

In six starts at three, Art Colony triumphed in one race and finished second four times, banking $440,000 in the process. He equaled his mark of 1:51 in his lone three-year-old win, but paced in 1:48.4 while finishing second in the North America Cup. He was also second in the Burlington Stakes and his elimination of the Meadowlands Pace.