Wind operation for Dreams Are Free

Talented pacer Dream Are Free (Captaintreacherous) is recovering from a wind operation so won’t be seen on the harness racing track until late autumn or early winter.

“We got him dynamic scoped (in Christchurch). It was done when he worked so we could get an accurate read on what was going on. We came home, thought about it, got a few different opinions and he ended up having a wind operation. Brendon (vet Brendon Bell) seemed happy with how it all went and his thinking is that it can only help,” trainer Nathan Williamson said.

He added that it became clear there was a wind issue in some of his races later in the season.

“I think in some of the races where there’s been a bit of jostling, he wasn’t quite as good and I think that was a factor in what was going on. Hopefully the wind operation will rectify that and he’ll be able to handle himself a bit better, touch wood.”

We saw the best version of Dreams Are Free at Ashburton when he won the Garrard’s Sires’ Stakes Sophomore Classic, winning by a length and a quarter and running the 1700 metres in 1-59.2.

“That day he was at his absolute best, he just jogged a New Zealand record. He’s extremely talented and it’s a matter of having him that way all the time.”

Dreams Are Free is currently at Williamson’s property and he won’t start jogging until April.

“We might be able to get a race or two into him down here and then look at some of the Cup (New Zealand Cup) qualifiers. That’ll give us a good line as to whether he can handle that (grade). It depends on how he comes through this operation and hopefully he’s clean in the wind and there are no issues.”

Meanwhile New Zealand Two Year Old Filly of the Year Captains Mistress, (Captaintreacherous) is back in work.

“She’s just training back down. She won’t race in the Southern Oaks (final) because the Great Northern Oaks is two nights before. There are no opportunities for horses like her so she has to wait until later. She’ll run in a heat of the Southern Oaks to get ready for a Sires’ Stakes qualifier at Addington, then the Great Northern Oaks is in Auckland later on (25th April).”

Williamson says Captains Mistress is healthy and well.

“It’s just a matter of fine tuning her in the next two or three weeks. She’ll have a couple of trials to put a good base into her because you want that in a filly that’s going to have to step up when she goes racing.”

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink