One last chance: the remarkable road back for Typhoon

The maiden win of four-year-old pacer Typhoon (Art Major) at Ballarat (July 27) was anything but just another harness racing success.

Instead, it marked the culmination of nearly two years of painstaking rehabilitation to give a special horse one last chance.

For Victorian horseman Tyrone Abela and the team at Balliang-based Evolution Lodge, the victory represented the ultimate reward for their patience and belief in a horse that vets thought would never race again

“The fact he got to the races was what we wanted to achieve – that he got there and won a race was beyond my wildest dreams,” Abela said.

“Everything he does from hereon is a bonus. In our minds he has already done his job.”

Driven by Chris Alford, Typhoon is raced by Tyrone and his wife Lauren alongside breeder Mick Harvey and his wife Jane.

The victory was especially rewarding given the gelding’s extraordinary journey.

“We were lucky enough to pre-train Typhoon as a two-year-old and we really loved him,” Abela said.

“He was a colt then and he was always a very heavy-set horse. His body was almost too good for racing. He isn’t that tall, but he’s very wide and bulky, and that build just puts so much pressure on his legs.”

Things quickly unravelled. Typhoon suffered multiple setbacks before returning to Evolution Lodge early last year with injuries so severe Abela feared his racing days were over.

“His legs were shot to pieces,” he said.

“We got opinions from two vets and they both said they were the worst bowed tendons they’d ever seen.

“I spoke to Mick and we decided we’d geld him, give him a full year off and then work him through a rehabilitation program here. We really loved him as a youngster and wanted to give him every chance.”

Typhoon spent nine months spelling before beginning another nine-month journey back to fitness, with the state-of-the-art facilities at Evolution Lodge playing a pivotal role.

“He has probably been our biggest achievement using the water walker and swimming facilities because I’ve never had one that was as bad as he was,” Abela said.

The rehabilitation centred on low-impact conditioning, gradually rebuilding strength before any pressure was placed back on his damaged tendons.

Only after months of work in the water walker, swimming pool and treadmill did the stable begin introducing faster work.

“When he went to his first trial, I told Chris (Alford) I didn’t want him going any quicker than two minutes,” Abela said.

“The trial was much faster than that, but Chris is a genius. He sat back and held Typhoon to exactly the speed we wanted.”

A second, slightly stronger trial followed before the stable felt confident enough to return to racing.

Typhoon announced he was back with an encouraging second placing at Maryborough before taking another step forward with his Ballarat breakthrough.

Abela believes the horse’s temperament has been just as important as the rehabilitation itself.

“He is the most beautiful horse. He was a beautiful colt and as a gelding he’s mellowed even more. He’s just a pleasure to deal with,” he said.

“As a two-year-old he was very dynamic, but he just loves racing and being part of the system.

“They say for every tendon they bow they lose a length of speed. I tend to believe it. We thought he might have lost that top-end speed but still be good enough to be competitive and luckily we were right.”

Abela said decision making around Typhoon’s future will continue to revolve around protecting the horse’s long-term welfare.

“He’s a day-to-day proposition and spends a lot of time in the water. We keep him off the track as much as possible and the challenge now is finding the balance between racing him often enough to maintain his fitness, but giving him enough time to recover.

“We’ll always put him first. We won’t race him unless he’s feeling good.”

The victory also validated the philosophy behind Evolution Lodge, where Abela has combined lessons learned under trainers Gavin Lang, John Justice and Danny and Jill Norris with modern rehabilitation techniques and highly individualised care.

With 16 horses currently in work, as well as four currently doing rehabilitation, Evolution Lodge continues to build a reputation for giving horses every opportunity to succeed. Every horse follows a tailored program, often completing two or three different activities each day across the property’s training tracks, treadmill, swimming pool and water walker.

“We mainly focus on trotters, but every horse here is treated as an individual,” Abela said.

“We monitor their heart rates, stride patterns and tailor everything to what they need. It’s a real team effort. Our stable manager Cathrine (Abela), our son Matty, our stable person Teagan and, more recently, Kyle Marshall have all played massive roles in Typhoon’s rehabilitation,” he said.

“It makes it all the more satisfying because everyone has contributed and horses that face a bit of adversity are always a little bit more special.”

 

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink