SCST DEC 18 - WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

By Graham Potter | Monday, December 19, 2011

Being aware of a list of things that can go wrong always helps in terms of successful risk management, but sometimes events conspire against you and things happen that are not on the list.

Looking after the well-being of a racehorse is a difficult exercise given the long list of items that could halt a horse’s progress. While every care goes into producing a positive outcome, any split-second could turn into a career threatening moment … as was the case with the Paul Messara trained Blather at the Sunshine Coast yesterday.

What occurred was on nobody’s list of things that could go wrong.

The superbly bred gelding (by Redoute’s Choice out of the Sunday Silence mare Miss Babble) had just made it two wins from two starts when taking out the final event on the card. He had overcome a tardy start to score a facile last to first victory after easily reeling in his rivals in the home straight.

That result came on the back of his ‘stroll in the park’ debut win three weeks earlier (also at the Sunshine Coast) where he put 3.50 lengths between himself and the opposition without raising a sweat.

So when Damian Browne brought the lightly raced three-year-old back to scale, most observers were confident they were looking at a horse with a bright future, but a few moments later that future was at risk with the horse trashing around in the winners’ enclosure.

Stable foreman Eden Petrie takes up the story.

“We saw the horse was coming into the winners’ box at an angle. We wanted to prevent the horse coming into contact with the side of the box and the strapper went to push him back. But before he could the horse panicked … and he is a big strong horse.’

As Blather’s one hind leg looped over the side of the winners’ box and left him dangerously straddling the (thankfully) padded partition, the horse’s state of panic increased and he struggled and kicked out violently in a series of efforts to try to free himself.

At that stage Blather was both a danger to himself and to Petrie and the stable strapper who were both inside the number one box trying to help the distressed horse.

Somehow, in his writhing, Blather managed to fling his hind leg back over inside the box where he was now on safe ground. Blather calmed down quickly enough after that and was walked away by Petrie.

It could have been a whole lot worse, but even then, there was obvious concern as to what damage the horse might have caused himself.

The light of a new day confirmed a happy ending. Eden Petrie, speaking from the Messara stables this morning, gave an updated report on Blather’s condition.

“He is a very lucky horse. He’s got a little bit of bruising to his hind leg. We had the vet go over him and he’s had a real good going over this morning again and basically everything else is clear.

“He’s overstepping. He’s stretching through. That’s obviously a great result, because we were worried about his pelvis and other things but, as I say, he is a very lucky horse.

“The strapper is also fine. He has got a few staples in his head from a wound he sustained when the horse was going off, but he’s fine.”

The hiccup has no effect on Blather’s on-going schedule as Petrie explains.

“Either way, win or lose, Blather was going to the paddock after Sunday’s run.

“He’s still only learning his trade. He blundered again out the barriers yesterday, like he did in his first start. It was a good win yesterday, considering the bias of the track early in the day.

“He could be a Derby horse I think.”

However those plans pan out, the good news for now is that Blather is heading out for a spell unbeaten and injury-free, which sure beats a couple of the alternatives he was looking as those scary moments unfolded at the winners’ enclosure.

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