Queensland Racehorse of the Year, Alligator Blood, has been ruled out of running in the Summer carnival of racing in Queensland and looks doubtful to return for the Autumn.
After taking the superstar four-year-old to Gatton University for examinations, it was found that the son of All Too Hard would require an operation to repair part of his spine.
“He does have a degenerative condition where the spines are just overlapping slightly which can cause pain so they’re just (going to) separate those spines and although it is a fairly serious operation, the prognosis is good,” Trainer David Vandyke said on SENTrack’s Pat & Heals Breakfast show.
“They’ve done this type of thing many times, I’ve had horses in the past that have had this surgery and they’ve come through it fine and they’ve gone on and performed well.
“Gatton Uni does a great job, so he’ll go over there next week for his operation and then he’ll have a four to six-month break.
“A lot of times the vets will be a little bit guarded in their prognosis but on this occasion, they were very optimistic, and they don’t see any problem with him getting back to racing.”
It comes after a slightly underwhelming Spring for the horse who struggled in the Golden Eagle, but Vandyke assured that was more to do with the heavy track rather than his niggling back concern.
“It was a very heavy track and even with this back issue being addressed, we still won’t run him on a wet track again," he said.
“He just went from travelling, to being off the bit too easily during the Golden Eagle and I’m convinced that it was the track and not his back that affected his performance.”