By Mac Henry
Racing Board chief John Allen has come to the rescue on the matter of filming of harness trials in Southland.
He has apologised for the failure to cover the Gore trials (31 August) and confirmed to Southern Harness that coverage will be ongoing. An earlier Board communication made no commitment to film the trials beyond the second of November.
Images taken on Monday (19 September) of Franco Ledger’s leg, injured during the Hannon Memorial at Oamaru eight days earlier, have revealed he has a fractured cannon bone.
His co-owner and trainer Hamish Hunter reports the damage is not major but will certainly end the nine year old’s racing career.
“It didn’t have to be screwed,” Hunter said, “it has a pressure bandage on and he’ll have six to eight weeks in a box. He’ll need a new career.”
Franco Ledger is still a stallion and Hunter couldn’t rule out the possibility of him serving mares at some stage in the future.
Race caller Dave McDonald has no plans to retire from the job unless his memory and eyesight start letting him down.
He is in his 40th season on the job and a presentation to mark the milestone was held at the Invercargill meeting on Saturday.
McDonald, who began his career long before it became the norm to show races on television, said his aim from the outset had always been to provide for punters an accurate picture of what was happening on the track.
Trainer Brent Shirley said he hasn’t made any decision yet as to when New Zealand Cup nominee Costa Del Magnifico will resume racing.
The entire performed below par in the Maurice Holmes Vase and had to be scratched from the Hannon Memorial after he had struck himself low in the right front leg.
“On Saturday we thought it was an abscess, by Monday it was swollen right up,” said Shirley, who later had the leg scanned. “Nothing showed up on the scan, the vet said he might have nicked a blood vessel. He’s good again now but I’m still to set a new programme.”
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