It has been decided that Starboard Watch will not now race this season.
Our filly was really pleasing James Given, and one or two race options had been pencilled in for her, including a tentative entry for a £20k Plus 10 race at Newmarket ovr 7furlongs.
But, sods law, during a final fast gallop in preparation for her first race, she pulled up quite lame, and the writing was on the wall.
Her injury, at first thought to be a stress fracture, turned out to be not so serious, nevertheless, even though she was well enough in herself a few days after the scare, James, after discussions with his vet, recommended that in view of the potential of this filly that he had clearly seen from her work, it was too much of a rush, and, more importantly, too much of a risk to race her so near to the end of the flat season.
Members were contacted, and there was unanimous agreement that our filly should be given all the time she needs, and thus she should be put away and will be heading back shortly to her Breeders stud farm for a winter life of luxury.
Disappointing yes, but as well as being a fine Trainer, James Given is also a qualified vet, so it would have been silly and irresponsible for us not to respect his professional opinion.
So its time for the Starboard Watch “crew” to go into hibernation now until mid January 2017 when we will, as the song goes… pick ourselves up….dust ourselves down….and start all over again !!
