Back to the drawing board for ‘depressed’ Weekend Hussler

Weekend Hussler has a sore back, a sore leg and he is depressed – yes, depressed. For him, the three problems add up to no Futurity Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday, no Dubai trip next month and no Hong Kong trip in April.

Margaret McDonald, the “extra caring” member of Team McDonald, who probably spends more time with the horse than does her husband Ross (the trainer) and son Clinton (also a trainer and heavily involved in the Hussler’s preparation), faced the media today to tell them of the horse’s problems; or, in her words, the problems the Hussler was trying to tell the McDonalds that he had. She put on a brave face at the Melbourne Racing Club’s launch of the Asian Mile Challenge that begins with the Futurity (1600m) and continues with the Dubai Duty Free (1777m, March 28, Nad Al Sheba) and the Champions Mile (1600m, April 26, Sha Tin), and winds up with the Yasuda Kinen (1600m, June 7, Tokyo) – the last race was never on the agenda for Weekend Hussler (B g 4, Hussonet (USA)-Weekend Beauty, by Helissio (Fr)).

McDonald talked about the horse’s physical and mental state: “At the moment he is going through a few difficulties with his back and he has got some pain in his off front joint.

“The two happened in the race (the Group 1 Australia Stakes, 1200m, at Moonee Valley on February 14 when Weekend Hussler, second up, finished a disappointing fifth to Apache Cat). Brad (Rawiller, the jockey) said he actually jumped something, he could feel him do it.

“He’s got the two (problems) that are becoming too much for him to overcome mentally as much as physical(ly) … Because he’s such a fluent-going horse, he’s finding now that because he’s got this pain barrier that it’s starting to make him feel, ‘I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to stretch out.’

“He runs off his confidence, probably more than other horses, and it’s just knocking him around mentally as much as physically. We’re concerned as much about his mental state.”

McDonald said the foot abscess Weekend Hussler had before running second to Light Fantastic in the Liston Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield in August was minor compared to the back injury, which is being treated by a chiropractor.

“When you’ve got pain in your back it affects every other part of your body,” she said. “I think that the horse is just finding it’s all a bit too hard for him at the moment.

“There’s no point in pushing him on. OK, we’ve lost Dubai, we’ve lost Hong Kong, but he’s a four-year-old.” Weekend Hussler indeed has it all ahead of him if he can get himself back in shape. Already he has 12 wins, including seven Group 1s, from just 19 starts and has earned $3.1 million.

“This is a horse that can race until he’s seven or eight,” said McDonald. “Why persecute him?”

Why indeed?

Margaret said the team had discussed taking him for beach work, but no R&R place had been determined. “If we do that, (track rider) Les Beer will go with him; he’ll just stay with him.”

Depending on Weekend Hussler’s physical and mental healing, the Doncaster Handicap (he is entered) in Sydney on April 18, or the Brisbane carnival in winter, or Melbourne in the spring remain options this year.

“It (planning) is all irrelevant because all we’ve got to do is get him better,” McDonald said.

The decision to abandon the Asian Mile Challenge was made after Weekend Hussler had a light trot and canter, with Beer riding, this morning.

“He (Weekend Hussler) is just not happy … he’s not himself,” McDonald said. “He was telling them ‘Please don’t do this to me’.”

Beer was back in the work saddle this week after a shoulder injury. Neighbouring trainer John Salanitri filled in for Beer, and McDonald said Salanitri provided amazing help. She said Beer was back on because they needed another opinion on why Weekend Hussler had lost his spark. “Les knows the horse inside out and back the front,” she said.

The temporary demise of the Hussler, Australia’s reigning horse of the year, overshadowed the launch of the rich series of international Group 1 races, despite MRC chief executive Warran Brown saying the Futurity lineup -  even without Weekend Hussler, Samantha Miss (injured but never a runner anyway) and Maldivian (also injured) ­ had “some great champions running”.

There are four Group 1 winners in the field of eight, but of those only El Segundo has won a ‘major’ (the 2007 Cox Plate), and he is just making his steady way back from stem cell therapy on an injured foreleg.

The Futurity is the poor relation of the series that began in 2003 and, New Zealand candidates aside, has not yet attracted an overseas runner. Saturday’s winner will be invited to Dubai all expenses paid – last year’s winner Niconero (a starter again this weekend) and the 2006 winner Fields Of Omagh failed when they made that journey, but Elvstroem, who did not compete in the Futurity, did win the Dubai Duty Free in 2005.

This year’s Futurity is worth $500,000, which is about $US325,000 with the Australian currency so weak. Dubai’s race is $US5 million and attracts worldwide attention; Hong Kong and Japan get most runners in their legs from each other and provide prizemoney of more than $US1.5 million.