NEAR GERMANY
12 year old bay gelding: Germany - Night Year
Follow this link to see Near Germany's career in the Racing Post form database: RACING POST FORM
Nov11: Had an eventful return to action after three and a half years off. He really needs to be covered up, which he his happy with, but is inclined to take off at absolute top speed at the tiniest sight of daylight. So only having five opponents was a far from ideal starting point, and when one fell at the second hurdle, bringing down two others, we knew that there was a problem brewing. Not only did he take off as expected, but two loose horses came charging by, winding him up further. The result was to do too much too soon, and in the home straight he was exhausted, and fell at the final hurdle. He stayed down for a while, winded and fed up, but came out of it none the worse. Freddy landed nose first, so took a little longer to shed the signs of impact.
Nov11: Obviously we have been taking things carefully with him, but the progress has been steadily pleasing. We have got as far as schooling over hurdles, for which a memory refresher has proved to be very necessary. If all goes well, a run is not that far off.
Aug10: Was out of training for well over two years, due to being hit by an overturned car skidding down one of the lanes when he was on light roadwork. There has been a prolonged spell of legal wrangling with the insurers as to whether he was fir to race again. Their vet's latest check up produced the opinion that there was not actually anything significantly wrong with Near Germany. If this is true, it would be ironic that the incessant haggling over a settlement has actually helped the recovery process. He is coming back into training, based on the latest advice from the vet, but we will obviously proceed with caution.
As a morale booster, he remained the focal point of the background picture in his absence, but now the undoctored original has gone AWOL. Like a shoddy Victorian medium, you never see the physical embodiment and pictorial image of Near Germany at the same time...
...but out of the blue comes a latest picture of the horse himself