Trident overcomes bowel infection

Press, 11 March 1985, Page 31

Trident overcomes bowel infection

Special correspondent Invercargill Trident, a $9OOO purchase at the 1984 National Yearling Sales, came back from a severe bowel infection last month to impressively win the group three New Zealand Kindergarten Stakes at Wyndham on Saturday. The Out To Win colt was struck down by a bowel attack, first thought to be colic, after racing at Addington last month. “He nearly died,” his part-owner and trainer, Brian O’Meara, said of the ordeal. At the height of the infection, Trident staggered badly and was attended to three times in one day by 'veterinarians. He was unable to be worked for eight days and slowly recovered

in time to race at Gore on February 18. On that occasion, he was not quite fighting fit and was run down by Borderline. On the first day of the Wyndham meeting, he lost a valuable stretch of ground at the start and took little serious part. On Saturday, Trident worked clear at the 1600 m and, pacing his final 800 m in 60s and his final 400 m in 29.65, gave his rivals little hope of pegging him back. Trident is out of the Local Light mare, Witchlight, the dam also of Kintyre and Ballochmyle, and closely related to the Great Northern Derby winner, Armbro Wings. Other topliners from this branch of the Maud family include Royal Gaze (Australian champion), Kentuckian, Mount Hobson (1974 N.S.W. Carousel), Spyglass (21 Victorian and Tasmanian wins), and Ossie Glenfern, a top Australian juvenile. O’Meara has mapped out an ambitious programme for Trident, which will race at Forbury

Park on March 20 as a prelude to the Welcome Stakes at Addington on Easter Saturday. The $lOO,OOO Sires’ Stakes Final and the Juvenile Championship in Auckland have, all along, been his principal missions.