Henderson hoping ‘signs are good’ for Buzz

Cesarewitch winner and leading Stayers’ Hurdle hope was hit by serious injury on Friday.

Nicky Henderson was able to give a cautiously upbeat bulletin on Buzz on Saturday, a day on from the Cesarewitch winner suffering a serious injury in his final spin before the Long Walk Hurdle.

After Newmarket, the Thurloe Thoroughbreds-owned grey shot towards the head of the market on the Stayers’ Hurdle with victory in the Coral Hurdle – but suffered a suspected fractured pelvis in his last exercise before his weekend target.

Speaking at Ascot, the Seven Barrows trainer said: “Buzz is good. We all thought he was bright and happy and as good as he can be. It is extraordinary. If you go into his box on a normal day, he looks as grumpy as he can possibly be and pretends he is going to bite you, but he wouldn’t – and he’d make faces at you. Yet you went into see him.

“He’s tied up and he was like he wanted a cuddle. He pricked his ears and wanted a carrot and he was ‘help me, Dad’. He knows he is not the same person.

Buzz storms to victory in the Cesarewitch under Oisin Murphy
Buzz storms to victory in the Cesarewitch under Oisin Murphy (Tim Goode/PA)

“I would say the signs are good – the first 48 hours are always crucial, because if they do have an internal haemorrhage or bleed. But we have got through the first 24 hours.

“You have the issue of complications, like colic, because he is stood still. But you have still got to eat. He is on the weirdest diet that neither he or I would want to ever eat, except it has got plenty of carrot in it. He is going to be bored and he has got a long time. But we will look after him and he will get the best treatment.

“We will do everything to get him back – not just back, but back on the track. There is every chance he will come back and that is our ambition.

“It is a 12-month job, I would have said. If someone said you could have him back for Christmas next year, you’d settle for that.

“I remember it happened to Fondmort. His was much more critical at this stage and that was a monumental life-saving situation and he was never ever going to run again.

“We don’t know to what degree he is injured. We don’t want to be too invasive yet, it is much better for him to rest and stand still.”

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