After surgery and stem cell therapy to treat an injured ankle in September, San Pail's trainer and co-owner Rod Hughes received an progress update from Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Kentucky on Monday.

"Everything's looking good. The stem cells are doing their job," Hughes told Trot Radio's Norm Borg. "We're going to give him another month and then we're going to re-ultrasound just to make sure that we're good enough to start jogging."

Since surgery, the trotting titan has been getting "a little bit antsy" in his stall but Hughes notes that San Pail has been hand-walking a mile to two miles per day to keep the edge off and lightly exercise. Watching from the sidelines has been tough for both horse and trainer as the injury curtailed plans to possibly race overseas in 2013.

"If he'd have went through this year and we'd got our share of the races, we would have liked to maybe finish off his career over there in Europe, and it would have been a great experience," noted Hughes. "I just didn't think that last year was the time to go, and I think I was right because of the amount of money he made showed that staying home was the thing to do. I think if we'd have been able to finish the year out strong, we would have went."

To hear the full interview with Hughes and Borg, click the play button below.

Episode 279 – Rod Hughes

Audio Format: MP3 audio

Host: Norm Borg