Whilst there are no prizes for winning barrier trials, the owners of Dynamic Syndications 3yo filly LAUGHING (Distorted Humor / Forest City Girl) have actually won the biggest prize of all.
LAUGHING - The day we purchased her as a yearling at the Magic Millions 2011
At Rosehill on Tuesday morning LAUGHING (trained by Gerald Ryan) went to the barrier trials in heat 7. Well short of the mark when it comes to fitness and education, that didn’t seem to matter to our promising filly as she jumped from the boxes like zoom top and went straight to the front.
Held together under a stranglehold by Tommy Berry and slowing the tempo down to a crawl in the early stages, LAUGHING straightened up 3/4 length in front of fellow Dynamic Syndications filly FRAUD ridden by Hugh Bowman. As the pair balanced up at the top of the straight, Tommy Berry let the brakes off and she put a gap on the field in a twinkling. From the 300m to the 200m, she put 3 lengths on the field and we expected that she would then begin to tire and FRAUD would run her down.
However LAUGHING under hands and heels, kept extending her lead the final furlong despite running on gas fumes, to go on and record a dominant 5.25 length x 1/2 neck win in a respectable 54.6 secs for the 900m trip. Considering the slow tempo early her final splits were fantastic.
LAUGHING wins heat 7 by 5.25 lengths over XANDRETTI and FRAUD
WATCH THE TRIAL HERE:
To give some merit to the horses she trialed against, FRAUD (trained by Chris Waller) had won her previous trial impressively whilst the Runner up Xandretta (Team Hawkes) had been a runner-up in Sydney on debut.
Whilst we do not like getting to far ahead of ourselves when it comes to barrier trials, one thing it has confirmed what we always assumed – She can run !
Tommy Berry was full of praise for our exciting prospect. He said that “she was the most professional filly consider he inexperience at the trials. She went better than we could all hope for.”
Tommy also stated “She was very well educated, and was calm and relaxed in the barriers. As she hit the front she simply relaxed and went to sleep. Then when I let her go she hadn’t even hit top gear before she was over the finishing line and I was pulling her up. She is very exciting” he said.
Why we are so happy about this filly and absolutely delighted for her team of owners. This particular Dynamic team has been to the depths of despair and now has a bright future to look forward too.
This filly was purchased by Dynamic Syndications at the Magic Millions sale on the Gold Coast in 2011 from Arrowfield Stud.
She was sent to the spelling farm and then broke-in very nicely. She was spelled and came back into work and then went into Gerald Ryan’s stables getting ready to have a crack at the Magic Millions. However Gerald said she had a lot of ability but was “a funny filly in the stables”. Some days she would act like a vacuum in the feed tin and other days she would eat nothing for 2-3 days. It was like she was struggling with a stomach condition. We had her checked out for stomach ulcers but that wasn’t the problem. Finally we couldn’t find a problem and her eating became more distressed. We gave up on the preparation and returned her to the paddock for a few months. She wasn’t as we had hoped, so put it down to immaturity and she needed extra time.
We brought her back into pre-training just on the approach to Easter this year. However she had only done a couple of days when on the Easter Friday she was reported as having colic and was struggling. The symptoms came and went several times over the next 48 hours. However at 5:00am on Easter Sunday she was prepped for emergency surgery. The symptoms gave every indication she was suffering from colic but all the clinical signs suggested something more sinister was happening.
Sydney University Vet Hospital contacted us stating if they didn’t operate immediately the filly would be dead within the hour. The surgery went straight ahead and within moments the problem was discovered.
The photo below is self explanatory:
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Operation a Success - Foreign Matter removed from LAUGHING
This foreign matter was removed from the colon of the filly. It was identified as a foreign matter that had become compacted in the colon and unable to be passed through the horse’s digestive system. It was thought to be either a length of hay net or bailing twine or torn horse rug that the horse had swallowed anywhere from 6 to 18 months earlier which had become caught and compacted with gravel stones and waste by-product. It had eventually become so large nothing was passing through the filly’s system and had started to turn septic.
LAUGHING was in intensive care for several days but survived thanks to the acute care she received by the team at Sydney University Vet Hospital. The prognosis for a full return to health was very high now the foreign matter had been removed from her system.
If it was not for the vigilance of the team at Oak Ridge and Wild Oaks spelling farm and then the around the clock care by the Vet Hospital, LAUGHING would not have made it.
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LAUGHING - ready to return to Gerald Ryan 8 weeks ago
Here we are just 5 months later and LAUGHING has shown her loyal owners that the costs and efforts of keeping her alive was well worth it.
Whatever the future holds these owners and LAUGHING deserve every bit of success this exciting prospect may achieve.