Paul’s battler has last laugh
WHEN Argyll Bay won on debut at Ipswich in 2016, trainer Paul Butterworth thought he had a winter carnival runner on his hands.
Two years on and Butterworth says no horse he has ever trained has endured more problems than the now four-year-old gelding.
That’s why Butterworth said Argyll Bay’s third career win in the Class 2 Handicap (900m) at the Gold Coast on Saturday had added meaning.
“The horse has been through the ringer and he is as tough as nails,” Butterworth said.
“When you win with those sorts of horses it is pretty rewarding for me, the owners and all the staff.”
It was days after Argyll Bay’s maiden win when things started to go wrong.
The gelding was in a float with two other horses when an incident left him with a major back injury.
“We were coming home from the track and the front horse tried to kick the horse in the middle,” Eagle Farmbased Butterworth said.
“Argyll Bay was at the back and ended up on the floor lying under both of them. By the time we got him out, he had hit his back a couple of times.
“It was pretty nasty.” Two runs later Butterworth ended Argyll Bay’s preparation and it took him 12 months to get the horse right again.
The Rothesay gelding, a $47,500 purchase at a Magic Millions 2YO in Training Sale, has also had to battle with hock problems in his hind legs and he has a condition that takes away his ability to sweat in hot weather.
“He has done well to get back,” Butterworth said.
“He wants to be a racehorse, he just has a lot of aches and pains that you have to work through.
“He has got plenty of ability and runs a quick time on the track so we have just got to manage him and race him at the right time of the year.
“I have got no doubt he will keep winning races as long as we place him in the right ones.”
Butterworth, whose stable star Capital Gain ran 10th in the Rosehill Guineas (2000m) on Saturday, said Argyll Bay would likely return to the Gold Coast or go to Ipswich for this next run. PAUL BUTTERWORTH