A major step forward after 26 months out

Sometimes racing isn’t just about the wins – or the wins aren’t always about crossing the line first!

For a small group of Victorian owners, it was enough to see their favorite horse finishing a brilliant second at Melton on Saturday night (July 27) after 26 months on the sidelines and what appeared a career ending injury.

Major Roll (Roll With Joe), trained and driven by Chris Svanosio, was buried three back on the fence after beginning from barrier 11 in the TAB We’re On Pace.  Svanosio had to move seven wide on the track in the home straight and found daylight at the 100-metre mark to finish fast behind the Paddy Lee trained Isthisjustfantasy (Betting Line).

“It was definitely one of our best moments – we’ve said so many times while he was out that if we could just have one horse at the track, it would be Major Roll.  He’s our favorite, and such a special horse,” elated part-owner Ryan Worthington said.

“He broke a sesamoid bone and we were told by multiple vets he would never race again – for Chris to almost pull off that fairytale was unbelievable.”

Major Roll, a 118-class pacer, who has 24 wins to his name and just short of $250,000 in stakes, is raced by a passionate and devoted group of owners, Ann Maree Short, Mick Cirillo, Ryan Worthington, Steve Maguire and Dave Hargrave.

Worthington said the rehabilitation of the now eight-year-old was genuinely a team effort.

“We were devastated at the extent of the injury and devastated for the horse.  All of the vets we took him to basically gave us no hope of ever racing him again.  It was pretty discouraging but we all really just decided to give him every chance, to give him a very long time off and see if nature would take its course,” he said.

“We took him home to Mick and Annie’s place and Mick did a fair bit of rehab with him in the early days.  He would tinker around with him every day and after a year or so we got him checked again, and still the vet didn’t think he would make it.

“Then Mick and Annie brought one home a few months later for a spell and Major Roll started running around with that horse, not showing any signs of lameness.  So we decided to give it a go and get him back in work and that was December last year.”

From there, Major Roll was sent to trainer Kate Attard, in Mildura.

“Kate started swimming him and getting miles into his legs, then it was really (Adelaide vet) Brodie Webster who gave us a glimmer of hope,” Worthington said.

“Brodie started coming to Mildura every month, and when he first took a look after a month of work he said, ‘I reckon this horse might be a chance’.  Brodie took him on as a bit of a project and worked closely with Kate on how to build the work up and how to manage him.”

Attard nurtured Major Roll along and he was tested with two trials in Mildura before the horse went to Chris Svanosio at Romsey.

“From there, Chris and Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s dad Alastair (respected equine vet Alastair Maclean) have been just fantastic.  Major Roll’s still swimming every day, even though it’s cold, it benefits him and he’s definitely in the right hands,” Worthington said.

“Everyone in the ownership group adores him because he’s as tough as he is fast and he’s just a lovely horse to be around, so to get him back to the races was all we hoped.  And you always wonder if he does make it back, whether he will still have the will to win and to push through the pain barrier that racehorses need to.

“We know he will always be a day-to-day proposition, but that moment when he knuckled down up the straight, and it was the old Major Roll, that was just the best.”

Major Roll is engaged to race again at Melton tomorrow night (August 3). Full fields here.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink