Star sprinter Hay List continues to make good progress from a leg infection but John McNair says he is not out of the woods yet.
Hay List has been domiciled at the Randwick Equine Centre for almost a month where he has been treated with heavy doses of antibiotics.
He was first struck down with infection in the leadup to the Doomben 10,000 on May 28 for which he was the dominant favourite to snare a third Group One victory.
The leg infection persisted, prompting McNair to send him from his Central Coast property to the Randwick facility.
While Hay List has been in the care of vets, McNair has been on a fact-finding mission to Hong Kong and Singapore where he still hopes to take Hay List when he recovers.
“I went to see him yesterday and he was OK,” McNair said.
“But he only just came off the antibiotics on Saturday.
“Past experience with him tells me the third or fourth day is critical.
“If we get past that then I hope to bring him home at the end of the week.
“The vets are happy and he has been trotting up sound but I’m guarded.”
Adding to McNair’s worries is illness to his 29-year-old mare Hooch, the mother of the trainer’s first Group One winner Highpak.
“She has has pneumonia and it’s very worrying in a horse her age,” McNair said.
“She has been with me when I started training and is the mother of Highpak who won the Karrakatta Plate in Perth in 1989 when it was a Group One race.
“She is obviously a very special mare to me.”
On a brighter note, McNair will run four horses – Rightson, Royal Discretion, Mindreader and River Jordan – at Warwick Farm on Saturday and is looking forward to grand campaigner Mustard returning to the track as a 14-year-old in the new season.
“Mustard is incredible and the plan is for him to come back probably over 1200 metres in the first week in August,” McNair said.
“He is not a winter horse, he doesn’t like the wet tracks, but he’s fit and well and wants to race again.”
Mustard is a veteran of 119 race starts which have yielded 17 wins, 29 placings and more than $800,000 prize money.
AAP TURF
