By Dick Downey

This morning at Gulfstream Park, trainer Jonathan Sheppard pullled the plug on runnng Ever So Lucky in today's Grade II Hutcheson Stakes.

It would have been the first race of the year for the Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club runner-up.

“He needed to have some good strong gallops during the week, because we gave him a little bit of a conservative workout,” Sheppard said. “The track wasn’t that great that day, and it’s been (sloppy) since. I discussed it at some length with (owner) Strawbridge Friday.”

Sheppard said he would look at several options for Ever So Lucky, including the Grade II Swale Stakes on March 10.

Ever So Lucky was diagnosed with cannon bone bruising following the Jockey Club and rehabbed on the farm in Camden, S. C. before being brought to Gullfstream Park toward the end of January.

The scratch leaves only five in today's Hutcheson, led by morning line favorite Thunder Moccasin.