Blazing Louie "could have won by five lengths" at Cambridge

By Barry Lichter

Trainer-driver Nicky Chilcott felt a sense of relief more than anything else after Blazing Louie’s all-the-way win at Cambridge on Friday night.

After years of battling to get Blazing Louie back to his best, with one setback after another, Chilcott believed she was finally there when the now seven-year-old set a track record win at Cambridge in June.

But in the days leading up to Friday’s race, she began to worry that the wheels were coming loose again when the dash he routinely showed in his final fast work was missing.

Chilcott only ever sits behind Blaze on racenight - part-owner Kevin Hall put dibs in on driving the horse long ago - but from her view behind the galloping pacemaker last Saturday his now routine “wow” home straight acceleration wasn’t there.

“When he comes off my back he normally goes from nought to a hundred in one stride. But on Saturday he didn’t change up like he can. He wasn’t bad, about seven or eight out of 10 but he’s normally 10 out of 10.”

That, combined with a worsening case of mud fever during the week, made Chilcott suspect it was a sign that his system wasn’t at 100%. 

“He has a lot of white on him (being by Sweet Lou) so he’s susceptible to mud fever and last week it flared up for the first time this prep. 

“He’s a fragile sooky-baba and even stupid little things can get to him. If you try to put cream on a nick on his leg he acts like his leg has been chopped off.”

When Chilcott first tried to put a nebuliser on Blaze after she discovered he had asthma, she couldn’t get near him with the freaky-looking head gear. 

The daily nebuliser sessions now form part of what makes Blaze such a high maintenance horse, Chilcott praising team work for his newfound form. 

“Everything with him is a lot of work, and that’s why when he performs like that it’s hugely rewarding for the whole team. 

“He’s always quite a heavy breather, but he has regular lung tests now and they’re as good as they’ve been in a long time.”

Chilcott admits she felt terrible when she discovered about 12 months ago that Blaze had been bleeding in his lungs. 

“He showed none of the telltale signs that bleeders do. Bleeders often cough when they’re trying to clear their lungs of blood but he never did. And while bleeders go off in the coat, his was always great. 

“I felt mean, but there was no way of knowing. His bloods were perfect but I just knew he wasn’t right. 

“It got to the stage where he wouldn’t go out onto the track and he’d throw himself on the deck. He knew it was going to hurt. It would be so much easier if they could talk. 

“Now we know what we’re dealing with and Blaze has PRP (platelet-rich plasma) treatment every couple of months. He has no bleeding or inflammation so his asthma is under control.”

Chilcott says given Blaze’s sub-par training run she was contemplating getting another lung wash done on Monday but his performance erased that idea. 

“He warmed up really well and he really got the stand start right again. 

“He’s not a stand specialist - he can still back up and do quirky little things - but the minute he takes one step pacing, you can chase him. With a lot of horses you have to nurse them through that first few hundred metres - wait ’til they hit their hopples and find a rhythm - but with him you don’t have to fear he’ll hop or skip. He can go from zero to 100 straight away and not a lot of horses can do that.”

Chilcott said she knew she’d be very hard to run down when she made the top and Blaze quite happily came back to her, unlike in his June win when he was charging the whole way. 

“He was smokin’ at the 600 and when I gave him a wee chirp, he was off. I sat up 50 off the line and let him cruise but he could have run away and won by five lengths.”

At the line Blazing Louie had a three-quarter length margin on Final Change with another two and a quarter lengths to the fast-finishing co-favourite Jeremiah. 

“It doesn’t matter how good those back markers are if you have a horse who can run 30 second quarters in front - they never get a breather and can’t get into it.”

Chilcott credited putting a head check on the horse with his improved effort. 

“He dropped his head when he broke last time at Auckland but I truly believe it was hitting a deep part of the track there which made him trip and nearly fall.”

When Blaze returned to his stable on Friday night Chilcott immediately treated him with a cortisone cream which she had been unable to use in the days leading up to the race.

“The mud fever had progressively got worse this week because all the meds that really get on top of it have a with-holding time. But I’ve now treated him with the whole nine yards so he won’t race for a few weeks. 

“He’ll have a freshen-up at Kevin’s place for a few days and I was hoping to race him again in three weeks at Auckland. But I’ve just seen that as a R60 horse there’s no race for him. 

“It seems crazy when there are two meetings in that week that there’s a cap of R54 on the highest race. Why would they be stopping any horse from racing considering our numbers are so low?”

Chilcott is hoping that the September 11 programme, still listed as tentative, might be changed.