Racing: Bebekay raring to go again

Finally New Plymouth trainer Janelle Caskey can allow herself the luxury of combing the calendar again with Bebekay, a star Te Aroha drawcard today.

Just a few months back, the horse's future looked anything but certain as Caskey, 27, made a lightning late-night trip to Massey University to save the classy gelding's life.

Three days out from the $600,000 Mercedes Derby - a race Bebekay had more than a runner's chance in after his tune-up second to open miler Tadan - local vets feared the Mellifont horse Caskey bred with her dad had twisted his bowel.

"It was one of the worst days of my life - we just about lost him," said Caskey, grand-daughter of legendary Taranaki trainer Jack Taylor.

Caskey first noticed something amiss the same afternoon when Bebekay began trying to kick his stomach with his back feet.

An on-call vet put the reaction down to over-zealous flies bothering him, but Caskey, who knew that response was totally out of character, refused to buy the explanation.

"I rang my own vet Ray Paewai and pulled him out of his meeting," said Caskey.

"He took one look at him and said, 'Get him straight to Massey'.

"That was at 10pm, but by the time we got there at 1am there was already a team waiting for us."

Luckily for Caskey, the problem proved to be a more treatable case of colic.

Yet it was still serious enough to keep Bebekay at Massey for three days of monitoring as Wahid pulled off group one Derby glory at Ellerslie.

With the life-threatening scare seemingly behind him, Bebekay came back to race twice more in that campaign, but in hindsight Caskey knows the gelding was still not 100 per cent right.

The turning point for horse and trainer came with his fresh-up sixth to Polish Princess in the listed Mason Appliances four-year-olds' feature at New Plymouth on September 30.

Still a little porky after three months in the paddock, Bebekay ran home stylishly over the 1400m, a trip now short of his best, to be less than four lengths from the winner.

His work since has Caskey confident Bebekay and rider Lisa Cropp can push likely favourite Sharvasti close over 1600m today.

He's won second-up before and looks perfectly placed after dropping back from R92 grade to R83 class with his unplaced New Plymouth effort.

"I think he'll run a huge race," confirmed the globe-trotting Caskey. "He ran a really good gallop in training last Thursday and the weight [58kg] won't worry him; he's only small but really stocky."

Caskey is also banking on Bebekay taking up flag-bearing duties this spring and summer.

Under permit-to-train licence restrictions, she has just six horses in work for now, but is looking to expand numbers once her application to go public is approved.

"After Te Aroha we'll back off for two weeks and then set him [Bebekay] for the Stratford Cup," said Caskey. "We'll go for that and then see what happens."

The group-placed Sharvasti could be the party-spoiler. She looked to have come back better than ever with an unlucky fresh-up third over 1300m on Stoney Bridge Day at Hastings.