McCooly’s Lad is on the verge of returning to racing after eight months on the sidelines.
He burst onto the scene late last year and was one of the hottest prospects in the country. He won five of his 9 starts including blinding wins at Sandown Park in 29.09 and 29.14. It wasn’t long after contesting the Super Vicgreys final on TAB Melbourne Cup night that he trialled and went amiss.
“He broke his hock. At the time we were of the opinion that he’d be unlikely to race again but the focus was on him making a full recovery,” said part-owner and breeder Darren Puleio.
McCooly’s Lad, or ‘Ralph’ as he’s known, was operated on by highly respected vet Des Fegan. Traditional and alternative methods were a part of the recovery process.
“Des did a great job. Once he (McCooly’s Lad) was starting to feel better he was telling Anthony (Azzopardi) that he was ready to get out into the runs by jumping around, doing donuts and those sort of things.
“He galloped once a week for a while, then it became twice a week until Anthony gradually got more confident.
“He’d had a handful of short trials at Bendigo. Anthony hand slipped him on the turn which by doing that didn’t allow him to fly into it and put himself to the test straight away.”
Given he hasn’t raced for more than six months McCooly’s Lad was required to complete a satisfactory trial under eye of the stewards. He did that at Warragul last Thursday and was cleared.
“He was fair to begin then bumped with another dog which cost him some ground. He didn’t break 23 seconds, but it’s only early days.”
Getting cleared was good but attention was firmly on how well ‘Ralph’ pulled up.
“He’ll be getting an x-ray to make sure everything is as we hope.
“If it’s all good Anthony will sit down and think about what’s next. If things aren’t 100% or if there’s going to be lingering issues then he’ll be retired.”
