A horse lucky to be alive will bring his trainer to tears if he can land a city win at Caulfield.
Heza Dude heads to town for the first time to contest the Canaccord Genuity Handicap (1200m) on Saturday with his trainer Udyta Clarke emotional every time he starts.
It is only through the persistence of Clarke that the three-year-old is even alive.
His dam Skyla was in agony delivering the colt with Clarke later finding that Heza Dude had put a foot through her bladder and she could not lie down.
Clarke pulled the colt from his mother and for 30 minutes performed CPR and mouth-to-mouth on the colt before he started to breathe.
But he was far from being out of the woods.
“When horses have been deprived of oxygen for a time they become dummy foals,” Clarke said.
“It means they can’t drink, they can’t stand and can’t do anything for themselves and you have to look after them for around six weeks until they get over it.”
Clarke and her staff worked day and night on the tiny foal getting him to his feet and feeding him with milk taken from Skyla, who died two days after the birth, and from mixed formula.
A foster mare was found but unfortunately she died four months later after being bitten by a snake.
Eventually strong enough, the colt went to a paddock with a couple of ponies but when that didn’t work out, Clarke partnered him with a standardbred gelding.
Orphan foals can be difficult, but Heza Dude is almost human and calls out when he sees Clarke in the morning and doesn’t like being shut up in the stable at night.
Now 16 hands, Heza Dude has won two of his nine starts and holds the 1200m record at the new Pakenham after an impressive come-from-behind win in March.
Now Clarke has thrown him in the deep end.
“I was so worried he wouldn’t get a start because there was such a lot on nominations,” Clarke said of Saturday’s race.
“I know some of those horses have been racing in Listed grade, but he’s got form against some really good horses.
“I’m just keeping all fingers crossed. He’s well, he’s fit and hopefully he’ll have some luck.”
