Quality Art Major gelding Swamp Major is back on the active list at Ken and Tony Barron’s West Melton stable.
The now five year old has been away from the stable for 10 months and by the time he's expected to return to the track in October it’ll be sixteen months since he last raced. He missed all of his four year old season.
How he was injured still remains a mystery.
“Tony was out jogging him in the cart with two other horses on the lead. We don’t know what happened but the next thing the horses were bolting around the place. Swamp Major with the cart on went mental, and we couldn’t catch him. Tony was tipped out and was kicked in the head by one of the lead horses. He had blood coming out his ear and was taken to hospital. He can’t remember what happened. When he (Swamp Major) came back he was sore. It was an accident. A few weeks later we discovered a stray cat without a tail hanging around. We think it could have come out of the hedge and frightened the horses but we don’t really know,” said Ken.
Swamp Major was x-rayed and had cracked a pedal bone and was turned out. The injury was scanned at three months and again at six months and he was given the all clear and returned to work in May.
“He spent the first two weeks on the tread mill and then we mixed jogging with tread mill work. Then we started pace work. He’s getting a good mixture and we're giving him a long buildup. Normally it takes three months but we’ve designed it to take four to five months.”
And the Barron’s are very pleased with his current condition.
“He ran a quarter in 32 the other day and felt very very good. He’s grown a bit but has really filled out.”
Ken says he’s expecting Swamp Major will go to the trials at the end of September or beginning of October.
“He’ll have one or two runs (races) before going to Cup Week.”
His last race was the Harness Jewels at Cambridge in June last year in which he ran tenth behind Heaven Rocks.
During his three year old year he also ran third behind Heaven Rocks and Classie Brigade in the Alabar Southern Supremacy Stakes and third in the Flying Stakes at Addington.
As a two year old he ran second twice in the Young Guns series behind Lazarus.
His ten career starts have yielded three wins, two seconds and two thirds with $43,296 in stakes.
He’s owned by his breeder Trevor Ryder along with friends Alan Lindsay, Cleland Murdoch and John Duff of Southland and Scott and Sue McCrea of Christchurch.
Bruce Stewart
Southland Harness Racing