Forgotten horse Lucky Liberty could make his return to racing at Caulfield on Saturday after missing nearly 18 months through injury.
After winning his first three starts impressively, the son of Statue Of Liberty was sent out an $8.50 chance in the Group 3 C.S. Hayes Stakes before his saddle shifted, causing the horse to put on a buck-jumping display and costing him any chance.
He then finished unplaced in last year’s Australian Guineas before it was later revealed that he had a carpal chip fracture in his knee and had to undergo arthroscopic surgery to have it removed.
Following three months in the paddock and a further three months of preparation, Lucky Liberty was almost ready to race again before he was found to have a stress fracture in his shoulder after his first jumpout, meaning he needed another six months off.
Happy with how the five-year-old has responded since he’s ramped up his preparations, trainer Henry Dwyer said he will make a decision on Wednesday morning as to whether Lucky Liberty resumes at Caulfield.
“This is the first time the whole preparation that I’ve been happy with him,” Dwyer said.
“I’ve been cuddling him right the way through because of the issues that he’s had but it got to the stage where I thought we need to put a bit of pressure on him now and he had an easy jumpout here at Caulfield around five weeks ago.
“He’s had two or three course proper gallops and this morning he galloped as well as he can with a mate so if he pulls up sound tomorrow then he’s a good chance of running Saturday.
“He was entered to trial at Cranbourne on Monday and I don’t really want to send him to the races unless he’s competitive so if he does line up at Caulfield on Saturday it’s a good sign that he’s there to win.”
Nominated for both the Group 3 The Heath 1100 Stakes and a 1200m Benchmark 78, Dwyer said if Lucky Liberty does line up then it will be in the easier option.
“He’s only a 73-rater so there’s no need to throw him in the deep end yet and he’s the type of horse that will probably go through his grades pretty easily,” he said.
“He’s definitely better than a Benchmark 78 horse and his form shows that, obviously this time of the year they’re strong Benchmark 78s and people target them so you’ll probably get four or five Stakes horses from the race long-term and he should be one of those.”
Lucky Liberty might not be Dwyer’s only runner in the race, with Chase The Horizon to take his place if he can make the final field.
The four-year-old son of Stratum hasn’t raced since back-to-back fifth placings at Flemington in June and Dwyer said even though the break wasn’t by design, he would be suited fresh.
“He’s a long way down the order of entry so we’ll accept but the fall back is a race at Cranbourne the next day over 1200,” Dwyer said.
“He had a fair setback in the barriers at Flemington four weeks ago where the horse next to him played up and through no fault of his own he couldn’t get away from it and it gave him a hiding and it’s taken him four weeks to come right.”
– racing.com
