Kevin Warby believes a bad barrier may cost A Paradigm Shift in the opening race at Newcastle Paceway on Friday night, but the Denman harness racing trainer already feels a winner with the four-year-old he bred and races.
A Paradigm Shift (Pet Rock) has won his past two starts at Newcastle – just three days apart – but he faces a tougher task from the extreme outside gate in a slightly higher grade on Friday night.
Warby said the sit-sprint specialist would have to go back from the poor draw and be driven for luck, but he was grateful to still have the pacer at all.
"We're lucky to still have him," Warby said.
"He got his leg caught up in a fence as a two-year-old and he ripped his leg open just above the coronet band and it was only millimetres away from the flexor tendon.
"The vets told me I would have to put him down, but I said 'he hasn't cut the flexor tendon, so I can fix that'.
"I just bandaged it up with honey for three months, I just kept changing the honey bandage every three to four days and we got him back on the racetrack and he's won six races since they told me to put him down.
"If he wasn't already named, I would have named him Revenant, which means back from the dead."