Multiple Grade 1 winner Shackleford will not run in the $500,000 Forego Stakes at Saratoga Race Course Sept. 1, his connections said the morning of the race.

"He's fine, he's just got a little cough," said trainer Dale Romans, adding the 4-year-old son of Forestry had failed to clean up his feed tub that morning and had been coughing last week as well. "We're going to play it safe."

Shackleford, the 2-1 favorite on the morning line for the seven-furlong Forego, will instead return to Romans' home base at Churchill Downs and will train there in preparation for the Sept. 29 Kelso Stakes at Belmont Park.

"I'l get him ready and bring him back for that," Romans said.

Eighth last time out as the odds-on favorite in the Aug. 5 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap over a sloppy track, Shackleford came into that race off back-to-back wins in the May 5 Churchill Downs Stakes and the May 28 Metropolitan Handicap for Michael Lauffer, W.D. Cubbedge, and Phillips Racing Partnership. Last year the chestnut colt won the Preakness Stakes and closed out the season second to Caleb's Posse in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

He was bred in Kentucky by Lauffer and Cubbedge out of the Unbridled mare Oatsee, and has earnings of $2,744,047 in 17 starts with a 5-4-1 record.