A string of bad luck hit both trainer Noel Daley and trotter Broad Bahn in a span of four months, placing both trainer and pupil on the shelf with bone fractures
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After winning his Breeders Crown elimination, Broad Bahn was scratched from the final after the fracture was discovered. Prior to the 1:55.1 elim win, which was a track record at the time, Broad Bahn won his William Wellwood elim and finished a hard-fought second to Pastor Stephen in the final - all the while competing with the fracture.
“He’s a tough, tough horse,” Daley told Harness Racing Communications' Ken Weingartner. “He was probably going for six weeks with it. We just couldn’t find it. He’s a horse that wants to do it. He’ll stand on his back legs and walk out to the track, but once he gets out there he’s all business.”
Daley confirms that Broad Bahn is back and recovered from his injury.
“He’s pretty good,” Daley said. “He’s been like 2:20. I plan on racing him towards the end of May, if he’s progressing. So far I’ve been very happy with him. He’s shown no signs of any lameness. He wants to do it. We just hope he improves enough. He’ll need to be a little quicker, like they all do when they come back at 3, but he won’t lack in enthusiasm.”
Daley has himself recently resumed jogging a few horses after suffering a broken ankle in a training accident this past January.
“I’ve just got to take it easy,” Daley said. “We’ll just keep working on it. I can actually wear two shoes for a certain amount of time. It’s not giving me any pain so that’s good.
“I watched them every day from the track, which was something different,” Daley said. “It was good to view from the side, but I’d like to be back behind them when I can. We’re down to where we have about 60 now, which is a good number for me. But even with that number I can’t see every horse every day if I’m out driving. So I got to watch every horse every day. That was good for a change.”