Rising star mare La Serena is retired

Brilliant trotting mare La Serena, prepared at Bendigo by talented young harness racing team Alex Ashwood and Tayla French, has run her last race.

The five-year-old had been unbeaten this season with three wins from three outings-highlighted by a last start sensational victory in the Group Two $30,000 VicBred Platinum Trotting Mares Sprint Championship at Melton on February 4, rating a career-best of 1.56-8.

“We noticed she was a bit limpy after trackwork one day, so we took her straight off to the vets,” Ashwood said.

“They found she had a fractured split bone in two places in her near side front leg,” Ashwood said.

“The options were to operate and then give her three months off which may have been okay, or toss her out in a paddock and let nature take its course and try and bring her back, but this can be a bit of a risk.

“Although in saying that, a few years ago we had another one with a similar injury, with a clean break, and it made it back to the racetrack.

“It’s disappointing because Tayla has been driving La Serena since I took over as trainer, and she had been getting along with the horse pretty well. They teamed up to win six races.

“It was obviously a tough decision to pull the pin and we thought long and hard about it.”

La Serena (Quaker Jet-Donegal Flat (Pine Chip US) is owned by her breeders Yabby Dam Farms, at Cardigan on the outskirts of Ballarat, operated by principal Pat Driscoll and trainer Anton Golino.

La Serena had just 29 lifetime starts for eight wins and nine placings with stake earnings of more than $63,000.

“She always had a fair share of ability. It was just a matter of her putting it all together,” Ashwood said.

“I really believe that racing in the VicBred series this year made a horse of her.”

Golino said it was a shame La Serena had her racing career cut short.

“She was getting better and better which was typical of that family,” he said.

“I feel for Alex and Tayla as they’ve done a great job. Being a daughter of Quaker Jet, we will most likely get her in foal next season to one of the sons of Ready Cash in either Eridan or Bird Parker.”

Ashwood said he suspected the injury may have been the result of an innocuous incident during trackwork.

“I was leading her off another horse in the cart when she got a fright and jumped into the side of the sulky. Her leg hit the stay on the cart,” he said.

“We’ve been very lucky because Pat and Anton offered us a replacement in a four-year-old half-sister to La Serena, by Love You. She has had one race start and looks promising.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink