A long road of recovery will come to an end for Hyspec when she lines-up at Ascot Park on Thursday.
The daughter of in vogue stallion Proisir has been sidelined with injury for the last 15 months but will make her raceday return at Ascot Park this week.
The four-year-old mare showed plenty of promise early on, having placed on debut before winning her last start at Cromwell in November 2021.
Trainers Kelvin and Aimee Tyler have plenty of time for the mare and they are looking forward to getting her back to the races.
“She got cellulitis last year and had a blow out in her back leg and it was quite horrendous, the back tendon even ruptured,” Kelvin Tyler said.
“It has healed up fine, we gave her a long spell and a long build-up. I got her scanned last week and she is 100 percent.”
Tyler is looking forward to seeing what his mare can do first-up but said she will take plenty of improvement from the run.
“She hasn’t raced for 15 months and it would have been nice to give her a good jumpout but the fields were light on numbers so I thought I would give her a run. She will only improve off the run, but she is still forward enough,” he said.
“She is an above average horse. Thursday is a bit of a starting point for her.”
She will be joined in Thursday’s race by stablemate Zac Black, who was unplaced last start over 1200m after posting a win and runner-up result in his previous two outings.
“He has been running reasonable races, but he will need a bit of give in the track. Hopefully the rain comes, it is forecast to, and it is raining here at the moment,” Tyler said on Tuesday.
“He is as good as he has been so I am sure he will go another good race.”
Tyler will head to Ascot Park with a team of a dozen and rates last start runner-up She’s A Con as his best winning chance, while he is bullish on his team’s chances in the SRC Gold Cup Day February 18 (1400m) where he will be represented by Arceus, Go Lotte, and Nineteensixtytwo.
“It was a good effort by She’s A Con last start,” Tyler said.
“She did a bit of work last start. She came from a long way back and came around them, so it was a good effort. She doesn’t need to improve much.
“Let’s hope there is a bit of give in the track for her. She has trained on well.
“I have got three nice chances in the 65 1400m. They are all going well. Nineteensixtytwo has got blinkers on for the first time and the other two have been going good races. I can’t really split them.”
More New Zealand horse racing news
