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This is a story of a
five-year-old horse that was extremely difficult to train, feed
and keep condition on.
His racing name is Bibury Court.
I first meet this fellow at Gary Frazer’s stable in the
Hawkesbury region of NSW. We were there to do some
endoscopic work with the
vet Trevor Robson.
Mr Frazer relayed that this horse was not eating
correctly and all attempts to keep condition on him was in vain, also Bibury
Court was not popular with track work riders due to his
bad temperament and the difficulties of controlling him on the track.
After a few attempts to settle him down enough to do the
endoscopic work we managed to get the scope into
his stomach and found extremely bad ulceration in nearly every part of the
stomach, Grade 3 ulcers, one of the worst you would wish to see.
On that morning Bibury tried very hard to be nice, allowing me a couple of
quick pats before wheeling back into his stall. I felt very sorry for him.
We strongly suggested that the horse be treated for his ulcers.
Gary mentioned that the horse’s owners had already spent a considerable
amount of money on him with not even a successful trial thus far. The horse
after all, was five years old.
Gary did mention that he thought the horse may have
ability, but with the problems of temperament and not eating made training
this fellow a nightmare and the worst for Gary was not enabling him to see
what the horse could actually do. Gary was going to contact the owners for
further instructions on the horse’s future.
Bibury stayed in the back of my mind for some time, then
out of the blue a good couple of months after the scoping Mr Ted Humphrey’s
one of the owners rang to discuss a filly he has that was not doing so well
in the paddock perhaps due to stomach ulcers.
Ted mentioned that I had seen one of his horses at Mr Frazer’s stables, it
was Bibury Court. Ted mentioned that Gary had suggested the horse be trained
out of a paddock and perhaps the Murray complex down south would benefit the
horse. Ted was in the process of arranging this.
Unfortunately the horse suffered a very bad bout of the
scours and his trip south was delayed until he was well enough to travel.
Finally he arrived at the Murray stables.
Ranvet was asked to scope him again and unfortunately his stomach was still
bad, but not as bad as the first time I saw him.
Mr Frazer had been able to give the horse some ulcer
treatment, but Bibury needed the treatment every day. The horse’s condition
was still poor and he was still scouring a bit but eating a little better.
Mr Humphries was in two minds, do we keep him or perhaps
it would be better that Bibury be given away as a hack. We encouraged Mr
Humphrey’s to have the horse checked out completely first as he was still
not very well. A week later the
horse was sent
to
Randwick Equine Centre to Dr Leanne Begg.
Dr Begg went over the horse with a fine tooth comb and
found the only problem to be his bad ulcers. Without treatment
the stomach had re-ulcerated back to grade 3’s in a short period of time.
Dr Begg suggested that the horse be treated for the
ulcers and perhaps he could go back into training as she felt Bibury was a
nice type and the suggestion of a women trainer may very well be the way to
go as the horse had a very low tolerance of men as observed by all at REC.
It was also mentioned to Mr Humphrey’s that if he continues on with this
horse that it would be beneficial to keep him on his ulcer treatment all the
time as the stomach was very scarred and would ulcerate again very quickly.
(Unfortunately some horses have to stay on their ulcer treatment the whole
time they are in work.).
So, Bibury Court found him self at Gwenda Markwell’s
stables at Kembla Grange.
Gwenda is an excellent
horsewoman and has patience with the difficult ones. It has recently
transpired that the late and great Colin Hayes spoke of Gwenda as the best
horsewoman to ever set foot on his place (Lindsay Park S.A.) Some years ago
Gwenda worked for Mr Hayes.
Bibury Court, now know affectionately as Bruce, won the
lottery.
Gwenda performed her magic and also treated the horse for his ulcers as
recommended by Dr Begg and Ranvet.
Our four-legged friend responded beautifully.
Condition started to come and Bruce’s temperament changed
dramatically to the point that Gwenda was able to put one of the boys up to
do his track work and handling the horse was no longer a problem.
Gwenda mentioned
that after
about 6 weeks into his training that she felt the horse was a nice type and
may very well get over some ground. He
has a nice galloping action with big strides.
Gwenda got Bruce fit enough to have a trail, but Bruce
being very green ran off at the turn and failed his first attempt, but note,
he did make up a lot of ground in that trail.
Trial number two at Warwick Farm was a different kettle
of fish; he motored home to run second and was finally passed to race. Every
one was happy.
Like any horse having his first run in a race, not to
mention a five year old having his first start, you never know what to
expect. Gwenda did say that she thought he would be running home hard.
She was not wrong.
Bibury Court missed the start by three lengths (1200m
race) and was last at the turn and still behind at the 200 mark.
The jockey weaved his way through the middle of
the field, caught and passed the field at the 50
and won by over a length going away.
What a finish
from a horse that
most thought would not get to the races. You have to give the owners Mr Ted
and Vicki Humphrey and their son Elliot, Mr John Gray and Richard Ottawa a
big pat on the back for persevering with him for so long and also for
taking on the advice of Dr Leanne Begg,
having faith in
the Ranvet ulcer treatment and Gwenda Markwell to press on when most gave up
on him.
The biggest congratulations to Gwenda Markwell and her
staff for the marvellous job done with this fellow and her dedication to
take the time to treat him three times a day every day with his Ulcerguard.
Hard work reaps the rewards every time.
This would also be a good time to mention that on the
Saturday 15th November 2003 Gwenda not only got Bibury Court to
the races and his win, she
also made turf history
in the Illawarra by training five winners on the day.
Congratulations Gwenda and we wish you and your owners
all the very best for the future.
Ranvet would also like to thank you for your continuous
support as a Ranvet Supplement user and thank you for taking on board the
importance of treating horses for stomach ulcers.
Our heading
for this story is Fairy Tales Can Come True, it certainly was the case for
Mr Richard Ottawa one of Bibury’s owners. Richard
races several other horses with his mates and Bibury is his first ever
winner. The feeling one gets from seeing your horse cross the finish line
first is something you never forget and cherish forever, it is very hard to
explain to people what it feels like and how your emotions are at that time,
Richard now knows, good on you sir.
Cheryl
Henness
From: David
Murray <dmurray@illawarramercury.com.au>
To: Cheryl
Henness
Subject:
Bibury Court
Date:
Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:34 PM
As requested.
Extract from
the Illawarra Mercury Monday 17th November 2003
Bibury Court
($7) had earlier made a winning debut in race two for Markwell, albeit a
couple of years later than his patient connections had hoped.
The
five-year-old missed the start by three lengths before jockey Troy Phillips
weaved a winning passage in the straight.
Former
English rugby league and union international John Gray, Richard Ottawa, Ted
and Vicky Humphries and their son, Elliot, bred the horse.
He was
trained by Garry Frazer for years but Garry just could not get him to eat,
Ted Humphries said.
'We got
Ranvet's people to have a look at him and we ended up getting him on
Ulcerguard.
'We started
to get him to eat and we brought him down here.
Bede
(Murray) looked after him for a while and then we asked Gwenda to look after
him.
Regards,
Dave Murray
Illawarra
Mercury Sports Writer
We wish to
thank Ms Gwenda Markwell (trainer), Mr Ted Humphrey’s (owner) and Mr Dave
Murray (Illawarra Mercury) for endorsing the contents of this story. Also
special thanks to Bradley Photographers for suppling the picture of Bibury
Court winning his race and allowing us to use it.
Foot Note: Saturday
29th November Bibury Court raced for the second time over 1400m
this time coming from the rank out side barrier and stormed home to finish 3rd.
He has proved his win was not a fluke. |
Innovation