17 September 2018 | Greg Hayes
Victorian trainer John Meade flew out to the USA on Sunday night thinking what could have been with his stable star Sparkling Success. Meade was forced to withdraw Sparkling Success from next month’s US $1 million International Trot last Monday after scans confirmed the gelding had a hole in his suspensory.
The couple decided to still make the trip to America without the horse after the months of planning and preparation that had gone into their once in a lifetime opportunity.
“If the Yonkers track is what I think they are, I think they’ll look after us pretty well when we get to the track because I haven’t ripped anyone off,” John Meade said.
“I did the right thing by Yonkers, it wasn’t my money I was spending going to America, it was someone else’s money.
“You can’t rip someone off for $70,000 and not give them some miles, if the race had been next week we would have probably raced him but there was so much work he needed to do between now and the big race that it was only right to scratch him.”
Sparkling Success is set to spend more than 12 months on the sideline recovering from the injury and Meade is looking forward to getting him back to the races.
“The vet said the hole is contained within the suspensory, it hasn’t blown the side out of it.
“He had platelet-rich plasma treatment last Thursday and I have had it done on my old horse Crescent Glory with great success but in saying that Sparkling Success is still going to need rehabilitation, six months in the paddock, then a bit of light work and then I just hope for the best.”
The son of Great Success has suffered from leg injuries in the past but Meade confirmed this was a new injury.
“It is definitely not the problem he had after winning the Vicbred as a 4-year-old, that was on the other leg.
“His front feet stick out past his nose when he is trotting at top speed, the entire breed does it, and that puts immense pressure on the tendons and suspensory but do you want a horse that does that and can win races or have a slow horse that struggles to win.”
Meade noticed there was some slight filling on the suspensory in the lead up to his last run in Australia and hoped it was nothing too serious.
“I thought it might have been dermatitis he picked up from boot rub and I treated him for that and on the night of his last run when I put his shin boots on he felt really good and he raced really well.
“When I got home after the race I treated his leg and the next morning it looked good and he wasn’t sore but I just had a gut feeling something wasn’t right so I asked the vet to scan his leg and that’s when we got the bad news.”
Sparkling Success has won 17 of his 37 starts and earned $420,170 in his career.
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