Injury setback for Muscle Mountain

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk 

Grand campaigner Muscle Mountain is set to be sidelined for the next few months after sustaining a leg injury.

The multiple Group 1 winner and $1.3m earner was not feeling his usual self  after winning his fourth Fred Shaw Memorial New Zealand Trotting Championship at Addington on February 27.

"The next day we went for a light jog and he felt a little off," says co-trainer Greg Hope.

"On Sunday he was a bit ginger as well so we scanned his leg and they found he had a hairline fracture in his cannon bone."

"It has not displaced."

A screw has since been inserted to aid his recovery .

"He'll have a month in the box and then we'll get an x-ray," says Hope.

All going well he'll then get back onto the water walker before he resumes full training. 

The injury means the winner of 41 races will miss both next month's $600,000 Trot Slot on Cambridge's Night of Champions and the Group 1 Rowe Cup at Alexandra Park in May.

Hope is confident that despite Muscle Mountain's age (he's nine) that this will not be a career-ending injury.   

"Like the true athlete he is he'll be back."