THE CHEPSTOW yard of Ron Harris was hit by a bitter blow this week as it lost one of its stable stars in what the trainer described as a freak accident.
Prodigality was making what looked like a winning challenge in the closing stages of a 6f handicap at Lingfield on Wednesday when he faltered and was dismounted.
Harris said: “He was travelling so well. The gap opened between the leader and the second horse as he came to win but he just lost his action. It was just one of those freak things. The horse had never been lame or had an illness in its life.”
The five-year-old had his injured leg strapped up and he was taken by horse ambulance to the on course vet’s box for further assessment.
Originally it was thought the injury was to his pastern but Harris said it soon became apparent that it was higher up and the horse had fractured a shoulder.
“That type of injury, if it happened to a human being you would lay him down, not make him move much for a few months and let it heal, but you can’t with a horse,” explained Harris.
The trainer estimates he has had more than 5,000 runners in his career, but only three fatalities.
Still, when they happen it hits hard, he said: “The whole yard is on a downer, he was such an up and coming star and still only five. We made him what he was, he didn’t know what racing was until he came here.”
Prodigality had been purchased by a new owner to the yard, but racing in Harris’ colours, after being sold by his previous owner Paul Moulton, who, learning of the news tweeted: “Impossible to feel anything other than very flat & sorry for Ron/owner/@Luke_Morris88 since learning of Prodigality's sad demise @lingfield.”
Harris first acquired the son of Pivotal, his favourite sire, for 10,000 guineas from the Ascot sales, after he had one run for Andre Fabre in France.
An inauspicious start to the career of a horse that would become a decent sprint handicapper; a well beaten run in a race over 1m 4f at Le croise-laroche racecourse.
Prodigality’s name means giving in abundance and he did just that, once he reached the beauty of Monmouthshire: “All he ever wanted to do was please you, it didn’t matter who rode him. He never used to wake up until he got to the races. We always knew he was a special horse, he just progressed and progressed,” said Harris.
The chestnut bolted up on his first start for his handler in a lowly Wolverhampton maiden in December 2011, before climbing the ranks in handicaps the following year.
He won four out of 24 starts and came home placed in six others, with solid runs at the big courses in contests like the Sky Bet Dash and the Wokingham.
Harris has a similar horse to Prodigality, again from Andre Fabre called Hill Fort, which he plans to turn into a sprinter.
But he agrees the former has left a huge void at Ridge House Stables and will be impossible to replace: “We will carry on, but it has hit us hard,” he added.