Turnitaround is taking a little longer than expected to recover from an unusual injury
Group Three winner Turnitaround is taking a little longer than expected to recover from an unusual injury incurred in the Ballarat Cup.
The Matthew Williams-trained gelding suffered heat stress in his unplaced Ballarat Cup effort last month but more worrying was the diagnosis of facial paralysis after the race.
Williams said he had never heard of the diagnosis before.
He said it happened when the gelding jumped from the barriers at the start of the 2200m-Listed race.
“He hit the nerve that runs down the side of the face that controls the nostrils and he couldn’t hold his left hand side nostril open,” Williams said.
“It kept collapsing on him so basically he couldn’t breathe through that nostril.
“It’s 90 per cent right now but it’s not completely right and the vets have said it could be another month or six weeks before it comes right.
“They feel he hasn’t permanently crushed the nerve so he should make a full recovery from it.”
Turnitaround, the winner of eight of his 35 starts, won the Group Three Eclipse Stakes at Sandown before the Ballarat Cup in which he beat two runners home.
“That’s just another one of the ways to get beaten,” Williams said.
