Following Lady Mendoza’s disappointing run at Southwell last week, we carried out some blood tests and a tracheal wash just to give us a clearer picture of what she might be suffering with. The trach wash is performed just to check for any issues with her airways, and I’m delighted to say that all come back clear.

The blood tests did show some inflammation and infection as we expected. We have had a few of our horses struggle with a virus, and everything she’d shown us prior to Southwell suggested she wasn’t affected, but sometimes you don’t fully know until they have a race, and unfortunately she is just carrying a bit of a sickness bug at the moment.

Physically she came out of the race absolutely fine, no issues with her joints or anything, which is the main thing, so we’ll just give her a short course of antibiotics and give her an easy time of it over the next week or so. We don’t have to rush with her, so we’ll treat her with the antibiotics and plenty of vitamins, and we’ll check her bloods again at the end of next week just to see how she is.

As Nathan said after the race, she’s a horse that should give us plenty of good days in the spring and through the summer as she definitely appreciated the better ground at Southwell. I’ll keep everybody updated on her progress and hopefully it won’t be too long till we see her out on the track once again.

Rebecca Menzies, Coral Racing Club Trainer