NZ HARNESS NEWS
Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Marcoola will be back.
And he will be back early next season, according to owner Clint Ford.
Marcoola has been one of several notable absentees from New Zealand’s top-class trotting ranks recently after failing badly in the NZ Trotting Free For All in November.
The former star juvenile trotter, who is also raced by his trainer, Ken Ford, was suspected to have bled in the shock performance, though the horse’s full diagnosis could not be confirmed.
“I can’t really confirm whether he did or not, because he didn’t show signs of it and they scoped him and there wasn’t much wrong with it,’’ said Ford.
“I don’t know whether he was a bit crook with something else or a virus or what it was.’’
Ford quickly moved to push the reset button on Marcoola’s career after the incident, giving him the chance to let the horse’s body recover from what he described as tough prior seasons.
‘’He had a big three-year-old season and pretty hard racing as an early four-year-old and he got quarter cracks in his feet this time last year.
‘’It was probably the body telling us he had enough and in hindsight we should probably have turned him out this time last year, before the Jewels.’’
Marcoola is set to return to work in optimum health in the coming weeks and be aimed at Canterbury’s early season feature trots that could include the Ordeal Cup and Canterbury Park Trotting Cup.
“They are all in September and October, so it will be around there,” Ford said.
“I decided to give him six months out from cup day, basically, and he is about five-and-a-half months now.”
– NZ Harness News
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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