Star filly working towards return after mystery health scare

Whatever struck down star harness racing filly Major Delight (Bettors Delight) remains a mystery to owner-breeder Peter Lewis, but he’s thankful all appears okay with his star three-year-old filly as she works back towards a racetrack return.

The daughter of Bettors Delight was found seriously unwell on the eve of an APG Gold Bullion heat in late April and despite making a quick recovery, has not been seen at the races since her victory in the Gold Bracelet Final at Bathurst on March 25.

“She obviously improved pretty quick once they put her on drips and that,” Lewis told thetrots.com.au.

“And after a few days she was almost back to normal, so we don’t really know whether it was some sort of a bite… the vet suspected it could be a virus, but the tests came back negative.”

Lewis said his three-time Group 1-winning filly now looked great and the plan was to head towards major features later in the year.

“Our plan was to go to the Oaks in Queensland, but we will probably just wait until races later in the season like the Victoria Oaks and Breeders Challenge in New South Wales,” Lewis said.

“Hopefully it (the health scare) hasn’t affected her, that’s what I’m crossing my fingers for.”

Major Delight won all nine of her starts as a two-year-old to be named the Victorian 2YO Pacing Filly of the Year and suffered her only defeat in a heat of the Gold Bracelet before prevailing in the Group 2 final.

The Emma Stewart-trained pacer has already pocketed more than $400,000 from her 10 career wins.

by Tim O’Connor, for Harness Racing Victoria