Nadal, the horse, retires and sends tennis fans into panic mode
Nadal unexpectedly retired on Thursday afternoon.
No, it wasn’t that Nadal.
Famed horse trainer Bob Baffert’s horse Nadal was retired on Thursday after a condylar fracture was found in his left front leg, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Baffert’s Kentucky Derby qualifying points leader had mounted a perfect record and swept his division at the Arkansas Derby earlier this month, too.
Nadal had earned more than $1 million in four races and was widely considered a top contender for both the Belmont Stakes and the Derby.
“He got a very serious injury today, and he’s fine now,” co-owner George Bolton said, via the Courier-Journal. “We’re lucky. We got four great races out of him … The good news is the injury was found, right? It could have been catastrophic.”
If you panicked when first reading that Nadal had retired, you weren’t alone.
Plenty of sports fans understandably freaked out on social media after initially thinking that the tennis great Rafael Nadal had retired.
when i read nadal was retiring on twitter pic.twitter.com/L8czAoxsP3
— daniel (@scottipippen) May 28, 2020
As a huge fan of both tennis and horse racing, seeing “Nadal Retirement” trending was not good.
— 𝔸𝕕𝕒𝕞 𝕎𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕣 (@AdamWiener) May 28, 2020
Tennis fans are going to be terrified that Nadal is now trending on Twitter.
— Candice Hare (@CandiceHare_) May 28, 2020
Seeing #Nadal retirement trending and then finding out it’s about the horse....🐎 🤦♀️🤣 Panic set in for one hot second 🎾 pic.twitter.com/sQJ6BQTcq6
— Monika Elling (@MonikaElling) May 29, 2020
I saw Nadal trending and my heart sank, stop playing yall pic.twitter.com/GM4tRdkXjw
— Chiv (@Chivster88) May 28, 2020
Whew! Thank goodness it's not this Nadal that is retiring. I nearly fainted. #RafaNotRetiring #TennisNerd pic.twitter.com/T1pebBrSkX
— Sandra Renrick (@TVSandra) May 28, 2020
I reacted to the news trend "Nadal Retired" as any sports fan would. But apparently this is about a horse from Kentucky.
What's next? Ronaldo (who as everyone know is a sled dog from Alaska) hangs his boots? https://t.co/ZLG47OTvH7— Etai Mizrav (@Etai_Mizrav) May 28, 2020
I just saw that Nadal was retiring....and I yelled out "I know you f**king lyin!" Then after reading further I realized it was a horse. 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/qAJjK7B9nk
— Brandon Claybon (@BrandonClaybon) May 28, 2020
When you see #Nadal trending today but you’re a tennis fan. #phew #morerafa pic.twitter.com/kSprq7HCjW
— Ay Vee (@JarOfReal) May 28, 2020
Classic mistake.
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