Bolt For Brilliance recovery on track

Kiwi harness racing superstar Bolt For Brilliance (Muscle Hill) is proving a “bloody good patient” in his early recovery from an injury that forced the hot favorite to an exit from the recent Victorian Inter Dominion Trotters Championship.

The lone New Zealand representative in the series, “Bolt” blitzed the first round of heats at Ballarat, before finding trouble and finishing a brilliant half-head second in round two at Shepparton. But disaster struck when the six-year-old pulled up sore after his runner-up performance to the eventual series winner Just Believe in round three at Geelong.

Toolern Vale horsman Josh Dickie, who got the callup to drive Bolt at Geelong in place of trainer Tony Herlihy, was devastated when the trotter was diagnosed the next day with a fractured pedal bone.

“It was a terrible blow. I guess it happens to everyone at different times, but it was a shame – he’s such a super horse and it would have been great to have him in the final and take on Australia’s best,” Dickie said.

“But now we’ve got to do what has to be done to get him back on track to where Bolt was before he got the injury,” he said.

The pedal bone is a single large bone inside the hoof, with the smaller navicular bone sitting just behind it. Although treatment of bone fractures in horses is notoriously difficult, with immediate diagnosis and treatment, pedal bone fractures are an exception. The pleasing news is there’s good potential for a full recovery.

The first phase is six weeks of box rest, and Dickie is happy with how the gelding is dealing with the confinement.

“He is bloody good patient; I’ll say that for a big horse like he is.  Being boxed up all the time isn’t natural for them at all, it’s natural for them to be outside and running around.  But it’s important that he’s boxed and not moving around too much and risking recurring the injury,” Dickie said.

“He has a mate inside with him and we’re always around him when we’re finishing up the horses for the day. Sammy (Dickie’s partner Sammy Kilgour) spends plenty of time with him, giving him treats and a brush just to keep him entertained and to break up the day a bit for him,” he said.

To view morning teatime for Bolt, click here.

“It will be box rest for another four weeks, then hopefully to a small paddock where he will have a little bit of space to move around in. Then as time goes by, we’ll extend that out so he has the whole paddock by the end.”

Dickie and Kilgour are overseeing Bolt’s recovery at their property near Melton, after making the move from New Zealand last year to establish a base in Victoria. They train a team of about a dozen.

Dickie, who captured the fifth group one of his career earlier this season in the (3YO) Vicbred Homegrown Classic, is also starting to pick up some nice outside drives.

“Rickie Alchin is giving me a real good push at the moment which I appreciate but opportunities are very hard to come by in Victoria.  Hopefully they will pick up though, and I have some handy drives coming up over the next little while,” he said.

“One of Rickie’s horses Watts Up Partytime is in the 2yo Vicbred trotting heats at Maryborough (Dec 19) and he’s a nice little trotter.  It would be good to get through to the final with him and get a draw because he has plenty of ability.

“One Big Shew ran third behind Major Moth in the Vicbred Super Series heats on Friday night (Dec 16) and is through to the semi now.  Again, if he can sneak through to the final and get a barrier draw, he’s got his share of ability.

“A couple of our own are going along okay, too.  Caster Semenya galloped up last start and was pretty unlucky and I think she’s a pretty nice filly.  And Power Up will go around again at Melton on Thursday (Dec 22).

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink