It has been an anxious few months for the father-and-son training partnership of Ben and Ryan Foote with their star sprinter Babylon Berlin.
The Group One performer was enjoying some time in the paddock recovering from a throat issue following her sub-par performance in the Group 1 Railway (1200m) at Pukekohe on New Year's Day when she had an incident that nearly resulted in the loss of sight in one eye.
“She is over her throat issue and then she got a pin prick in her eye, we don't know if it was a thistle or not,” Ben Foote said. “We were worried for a short time whether she was going to lose her eye. She spent three weeks at the vet clinic and she came right a couple of days before we were looking at having surgery.
“She is just about fully recovered and is on the treadmill at the moment. She has got a glow back in her coat and she looks tremendous. We will just take our time and get her fitness back up and then make a plan from there.”
Having missed a number of key feature sprints in New Zealand, the perennial Group One bridesmaid will likely head across the Tasman in her next preparation, and Foote believes she is capable of claiming an elusive elite-level scalp.
“More than likely she will head to Australia, but she might have a run here first to make sure everything is in order, but I am happy with her,” Foote said.
“It was really disappointing it happened when it did, but she has still got fresh legs and has got another big one in her for sure.”