Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Montana Glory, stylish winner of the 2130m Retravision Every Day’s A Sale Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night, is lucky to be alive, let alone proving to be one of the State’s best pacing mares.
She was purchased in New Zealand three and a half years ago by Jim and Wilma Giumelli after she had finished second to A Bettor You in the $100,000 Diamond Classic at Cambridge, an excellent performance which followed her second in the Caduceus Club Classic at Alexandra Park and a third in the Sires Stakes Championship at the same venue.
She was bought with a record of one win (over 1700m at Alexandra Park), three seconds and a third placing for stakes of $55,528. But things then went horribly wrong.
Her WA trainer Mike Reed said that she was flown to Melbourne and that Covid restrictions prevented her from travelling by air to Perth.
“We were then told that if we took her by float to Sydney, she would be able to get on a flight there to Perth,” said Reed.
“That failed, and we had to leave her in Sydney for eight weeks at a galloping agistment place. She wasn’t worked during a period of wet weather and was overfed with too much grain, resulting in her suffering from laminitis (an extremely painful and potentially fatal condition which affects the laminae of a horse’s hoof).
“Finally, we put her on a truck to travel to Perth, and when she arrived here, she walked like a crippled duck, she was that lame. We took her to Murdoch Hospital where we were told that she would be lucky to race again.
“So, we spelled her and put her in a paddock with no feed, just feeding her with hay and treating her with anti-inflammatories.”
Eventually, Montana Glory was ready to resume racing, and she had her first start for her new owners and trainer and her first run for 16 months when she finished third behind Cherry On The Cake at Pinjarra in October 2022.
After her next outing she was unable to race for the following four months. She resumed with a first-up win at Pinjarra in February 2023, and after four runs in that preparation she was off the scene for six months before resuming in August this year.
Montana Glory now has thrived in this preparation, with five wins from 12 starts, taking her record to 33 starts for eight wins, 12 placings and $130,786.
“Earlier on, we brought her back a couple of times for one or two runs before she got sore again,” said Reed. “After some advice from Neville Brindley, we fitted flip flops on her front feet, and that has done the trick, and I now reckon she will get better and better.”