Access may not race again

Press, 9 May 1985, Page 34

Access may not race again

PA New Plymouth The Stratford colt, Access, has ended his Australian campaign before even making it to the races. Stratford trainer, Dick Bothwell, said from Brisbane yesterday that Access had broken down and his racing future was in doubt. “Also he is under offer to Australian interests,” he said. The three-year-old Acamas colt travelled to Australia last Wednesday and went amiss soon after getting off the plane. “Its bone chips in his offfront knee that’s the problem. He’s been troubled by this for a long time and has been a day-to-day proposition but it did seem to have come right before we left home,” Bothwell said. He said if the colt was to race again, the knee would require an operation to remove the chip. Access was bred in Ireland and was raced by the Grangewilliam Stud Co., Ltd. He provided the Waito-tara-based company with its first success when winning at New Plymouth in March. The colt was to have had

his first race in the Queensland Guineas on Saturday. With Access’s campaign aborted it will now be left to the juvenile filly, Ice Flake, to carry the flag for Bothwell. Ice Flake is to have the first start of her Brisbane campaign in a handicap juvenile event at Eagle Farm on Saturday. Bothwell could not be happier with the filly’s condition. “She has settled in perfectly and is thriving by the day,” he said. Bothwell said Ice Flake worked brilliantly at the Eagle Farm track on Tuesday morning. “She worked over 800 m and covered the last 600 m in 36.3 s under a good hold. She has never been better,” he said. Bothwell is using Saturday’s 1200 m race as a guide to her future starts in Brisbane. Two races in mind for Ice Flake are the Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400 m at Eagle Farm on June 1 and the $300,000 Castlemaine Stakes (1600 m at Eagle Farm on Brisbane Cup day (June 10).