DERBY AND Superstakes winner MIRACLE MAN was forced to withdraw from the Caribbean Classic at the El Commandante racetrack in Puerto Rico on Sunday when he tested positive for tick fever in Miami earlier this week.
Blood samples from MIRACLE MAN, which were sent to Miami where he has been held in quarantine since November 22, indicated the presence of tick fever and this has prevented him from leaving Miami for the race in Puerto Rico on Sunday.
Owned by Joseph Duany and trained by Hall of Famer Allan 'Billy' Williams, the big, robust three-year-old colt who romped the November 12 Red Stripe Super-stakes over 2000 metres, the same distance as the US$300,0000 Caribbean Classic, will return home via charter flight today.
Efforts to contact his owner late yesterday afternoon proved futile, but The Gleaner has learnt that an application for a waiver made by the Jamaica Racing Commission's chief vet, Dr. St. Aubyn Bartlett (who was in Miami), which would have enabled MIRACLE MAN to run, was turned down by the Florida officials.
Dr. Paul Wright, a former CTL director and many-time president of the Jamaica Racehorse Owners' Association, said yesterday that everything was done in a hurry to get MIRACLE MAN into the race and that did not leave room to have him take anti-biotics so he would have tested negative.
