Chris Alford will get an early indication of how injury-plagued pacer Courtygaz has come rebounded from his latest setback.
The one-time talented youngster will have his first run for more than nine months when he takes on in-form speedsters Larado and Ndizani in the Shire Of Melton Pace (1609m) at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
While not the ideal way to resume after such a long spell given there have not been any trials for almost a month, Alford said his hands had been tied and Courtygaz had to start somewhere.
“It’s been a bit hard to get him wound up with no trials having been run for a while and I’ve probably done as much work as I can at home with him,” Alford said.
“Obviously he’s not really wound up, so we’re just going to have to get a few runs into him to get him up to peak fitness.”
Plenty of harness racing fans will be tuning in at 8.50pm to see how Courtygaz fares in his return run.
The son of Fake Left created quite an impression early in his career, winning 13 of his first 29 starts and finishing a narrow runner-up in both the Breeders Crown and Vicbred Super Series finals of his three-year-old old season.
But his career looked over when he became gravely ill after trailing the field home as a $1.60 favourite in a 4YO Vicbred Super Series semi-final in May last year.
He somehow made a swift recovery and was back at the races by the end of October. After running a place – including three wins – at his first six runs back from a spell he finished eighth in the Victoria Cup Consolation on December 16 when he bruised a tendon and hasn’t been seen at the races since.
Alford said the injury was at the lower end of the scale regarding tendons but the entire was given a lengthy layoff as a precaution given his potential.
All things going well Alford would like to think Courtygaz is capable of measuring up to Group 1 level, but he isn’t expecting miracles on Friday night.
While Courtygaz has been kept safe at $3.50 after drawing inside Ndizani ($3 - barrier five) and Larado ($2.50 - barrier six) in gate four, Alford expects the favoured pair to be too nippy.
“They (Ndizani and Larado) will probably fly out of the gate and can run pretty slick times. I don’t really want to be getting into a battle with this bloke early on,” the Bolinda trainer-driver said.
“I’ll just be looking to slot him in somewhere early and hopefully he can be running on up the straight and then I’ll be happy.”
