Paul Beshara has had his training license renewed after serving a six month suspension and revealed this morning that his star galloper Happy Trails will return to his stable to resume training this afternoon.
Happy Trails ran down Puissance De Lune to win the Turnbull Stakes during the 2014 Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Happy Trails was narrowly denied victory by Shamus Award in the Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) during the 2013 Spring Racing Carnival, but was ruled out of the rest of the spring and autumn due to a tendon injury on his near side foreleg.
Beshara told Racing Ahead this morning that scans had shown that Happy Trails had recovered well from the injury and confirmed that the Good Journey gelding would rejoin his stable this afternoon.
“He is good,” Beshara said.
“They have scanned him and things are all good.
“He will be back into the stables today, they will pick him up from the paddock at 2 and he should be back at my place by 3 this afternoon.”
Happy Trails was one of the most consistent weight-for-age performers during the 2013 Spring Racing Carnival, with the six-year-old winning the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on October 5 before finishing second in the Cox Plate, and Beshara is hopeful that the tough gelding can return to the highest level of racing this preparation.
Beshara said that the Cox Plate would once again be the major spring target for Happy Trails and he is hoping to have the two-time Group 1 winner ready to return to racing in the Group 3 Spring Stakes (1200m) at Morphettville in August.
“He can go on the water walker for a couple of weeks and then we will slowly trotting him and give him a nice slow preparation,” Beshara said.
“We will try and get him ready for the Spring Stakes here in Adelaide, which he did the last two years, and that is about the middle of August.
“From there we will go over for the Memsie.
“He is not an overraced horse and we will see how he bounces back.”
Beshara was suspended for six months by Racing Victoria stewards after he was found guilty of injecting Happy Trails with an unknown substance before the running of the Group 2 Dato’ Tan Chin Nam Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley on September 14 – a charge which the veteran trainer vehemently denied.
Beshara said that he holds no bitterness for his suspension and is simply happy to be back on track, training his small team of horses once again.
“It feels good, it is very tough but we get through it and plenty of worse things have happened,” Beshara said.
“I am not frustrated.
“You have to move on and that is all behind me now, I will move forward.
“I am here to train.”
