Absent from harness racing’s Free-For-All ranks and yet to make his first 2024 appearance, veteran pacing stallion Warrawee Vital is on track to bounce back from an injury.
After being trained down at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Canadian record holder Warrawee Vital was nearing the debut for his seven-year-old campaign when a setback occurred.
Warrawee Vital’s co-owner Blair Corbeil told Trot Insider that the injury occurred during a training trip at Mohawk in mid-May.
“Rob [Fellows] was coming down the stretch with him when he noticed that he was off a little bit, so he pulled him up and his leg kind of swelled up,” said Corbeil in an interview earlier this month. “I wouldn't say [it’s a] major injury, but it's significant enough that we're going to have to give him a few months off here.”
On a positive note, Corbeil indicated that Warrawee Vital looks to be in career form with a physique reminiscent of world-class bodybuilders.
“I hadn’t seen him in almost a year. I almost cried, the horse looks so good,” said Corbeil, who also serves as the Chair of the Board for Standardbred Canada. “He’s bigger, stronger than he was last year and just looked like a million dollars…He looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I haven’t seen a Standardbred look like that in my life.”
A son of Captaintreacherous-Great Memories, Warrawee Vital sports earnings of nearly $740,000 for Corbeil and co-owners Yolanda Fellows, M&S Racing Stable Inc., and trainer Kyle Fellows. The pacer boasts 23 career victories, none faster than his dazzling lifetime mark of 1:46.4 taken just over a year ago at Mohawk to tie Bulldog Hanover and Dr J Hanover with the fastest mile ever recorded on Canadian soil.
Corbeil hoped his classy veteran will be able to return in time for some of the late season stakes events.
“Hopefully he’s back to 100 per cent in time to catch a couple of these big ones at the end of the year. The good thing about these aged horses is the big money's at the end of the year, not the beginning.”
(Standardbred Canada)