Racing: Sent-home cripple a Multiwin hero now

We now know Mr Multiwin has courage and guts to match his remarkable class.

And, next start, the former cripple will almost certainly be demonstrating that to the Australians.

New Zealand speed horses have an overall ordinary record in Australia, but co-owner and trainer Tim Carter is determined to take Mr Multiwin to the Adelaide carnival in May.

And why not. Mr Multiwin has not looked like getting beaten in five starts in New Zealand since returning from Hong Kong with a foreleg spiral fracture.

Mr Multiwin is racing because of the tremendous care given him by Carter and his partner Margaret Griffin.

After victory at Ellerslie yesterday the roles were reversed. Mr Multiwin was walking perfectly after a gutsy victory to get punters off the hook in the New Zealand Herald 1400, but Carter could barely put his legs to the ground.

He thought he had thrombosis after a recent flight to Hong Kong, but his doctor cleared him of that and further tests have revealed nothing.

"It's like when you start football practice for the first time each year and you blow your calf muscles."

Carter knows a bit about that - he played 80 representative games for Hawkes Bay and 25 for the Maori All Blacks.

First-time rider Michael Coleman could not wait to heap praise on Mr Multiwin.

"He was never happy in that choppy ground. At the 900m he was struggling and it was only his guts and courage that got him there."

Mr Multiwin had to fight hard to get past Santoya in the closing stages, unable to produce the dashing sprints that have marked his previous four New Zealand races.

"He's a lovely horse," said Coleman, "he gave me a great ride."

Carter was in Hong Kong recently to strike a deal to send his class 3-year-old Danz Star there to race.

The arrangement includes aiming Danz Star at two listed races, at 1800m and 2000m, during the Adelaide Cup carnival.

"If he's going, I may as well take Mr Multiwin. Neville Couchman is taking Gee I Jane back to Australia for the group one Goodwood Handicap and he has been encouraging me to go. He's even gone as far as tentatively booking Steven Arnold to ride him."

The Goodwood is South Australia's premier sprint event, run on May 15 for A$300,000 ($325,000).

Carter originally sold Mr Multiwin to Hong Kong as the agent for the transaction. When the horse suffered a cannon bone spiral fracture, he offered to take the horse back.

But when the winning resumed here from mid-summer, the owners made approaches to take him back to Hong Kong.

"What helped us was the Hong Kong Jockey Club said they would not give permission for the horse to return because it would create a precedent."

Carter said anyone would be staggered that Mr Multiwin could win a race if they felt the lack of flexibility in the fetlock joint in the leg that was broken.

"There is very little movement in the joint at all and he can't flick it back, but it just doesn't seem to affect him."