Postman Pat Takes Stride Towards Racing Return

SUPERSTAR sprinter Postman Pat – off the scene since early January – has taken a giant stride towards an against the odds return to racing.

The Jason Thompson-trained son of Hooked On Scotch had a trial hit-out at Healesville on Sunday and came through the run in great order.

Back in February, it was feared that the 24-time winner may had run his last race after injuring an Achilles in a trial at Shepparton.

At the time it was expected the track record breaking powerhouse would be sidelined for at least five months before the thought of racing could even be entertained.

But such has been the speed of his recovery, vets recently cleared the prodigious talent to trial, just three months on from sustaining the potentially career ending injury.  

"He's come through the first trial great – couldn't be happier with how he's pulled up," trainer Jason Thompson said.

"We've mapped out a plan over the next few weeks to give him three or four more trials and if all goes well we'll look to return him to the races. 

"He's 3 ½ now so he's at the back end of his career so we will just see how things look the next few weeks. The only focus at the moment is getting through a few more trials and hopefully getting back to the races.

"If he does and it all goes to plan then we will start looking at what races are around after that. The main thing is he's come through Sunday perfectly, the Achilles is great.

“If he does return, it'd be a real bonus and great for the sport.”

One of the bonafide stars of the sport, Postman Pat, which launched his career in New Zealand, boasts 24 wins and eight placings from 37 career starts and has banked $543,285 in prize money.

A regular in big race finals, the NZ expat finished runner-up in last year's Group 1 Brisbane Cup, a close up second to Schillaci in The Phoenix at The Meadows in December while he also finished third to Jay Is Jay in the Million Dollar Chase.

After coming to grief in a trial earlier in the year, Thompson admits to all but conceding the star sprinter's career was over.

"They do come back from the achilles injury he had but his one was on the worse side," Thompson said.

"Des Fegan did a great job with the operation but we still didn't really expect him to come back.

“Actually, he was all but retired. I wanted to keep him here at home to do his rehab and as time went on he was free galloping more and more and ticking every box.

"He then had some really solid gallops before my vet Barry Haywood gave him the green light to trial.

"It's only early stages but so far so good." 

Included in Postman Pat's remarkable winning times are metropolitan successes of 29.39 at Albion Park, 29.06 at Sandown Park, 29.58 at Wentworth Park and 29.60 at The Meadows.

Remarkably, 23 of his 24 victories have been in best of meeting times.