The remarkable story of Felicia reached new heights on Saturday when the 4-year-old mare landed her first black-type win in the G3 How Now S. at Caulfield, with plenty more still to come.
The Dean Binaisse-trained Felicia wouldn’t even still be alive, let alone racing if the vets had got their way.
After winning her first two starts as a juvenile by an all-up margin of 8.3l, she was found to have heat in her knee and was set to have a straightforward arthroscope to sort out what looked like a reasonably minor problem.
That arthroscope caused an infection and after a second procedure, she was diagnosed as ‘broodmare at best’.
“We were really, really disappointed,” breeder Gerard Ballantyne told TDN AusNZ. “Matt (Seyers, former trainer), Richard (White, co-breeder) and I went to see her and I remember Matt Seyers saying to me in the car that it was a real shame because this horse was a Group horse.
"I remember Matt Seyers saying to me in the car that it was a real shame because this horse was a Group horse." - Gerard Ballantyne
“It made for a very sombre trip down I can tell you that.”
Originally from Victoria, Ballantyne wanted Felicia to live out her days with the rest of his broodmares who were in the care of Brooke Barker. She wasn’t ready to go to the breeding barn straight away so she was placed in the paddock.
“I used to go down and see her and Brooke was really fascinated by her,” Ballantyne said. “She said ‘I’m really having trouble accepting the vet's prognosis with this horse’.
“So we got a second opinion from another vet clinic and they said ‘no, she will never race again,’ and a third and fourth vet clinic actually said that she should be put down.”
A fifth opinion
Ballantyne said that despite the prognosis of the vets, Felicia was galloping around her paddock showing no signs of lameness and was all-around loving life. So they got a fifth opinion.
“We had another vet from Golden Plains Veterinary Clinic come out and they did an x-ray and it was enough to suggest that we should do another arthroscope to find out exactly what the condition of the knee was, this is some six months after the first op.”
The vet that performed the final arthroscope couldn’t see any reason why with proper care, Felicia shouldn’t be able to race again. “If I’d won TattsLotto, I wouldn’t have felt any better,” Ballantyne said.
From there, time and patience was the key. They were after a trainer who would buy into the same ideology and that’s where Barker suggested Mornington-based Binaisse.
Dean Binaisse
“I went over and met with Dean and saw his facilities,” Ballantyne said. “He had the water walker, he was near the Mornington track, he had the beach and had a small team and he convinced me that he had the knowledge and the patience.
“We went along really, really slowly with her and then it got to the morning where she had her first gallop.
“I went over to see it and she sat off a pacemaker by about 4l and Felicia ran over the top of it. Dean turned to me and said ‘she is a weapon, this horse, we’ve just got to manage her.’”
"Dean turned to me and said ‘she is a weapon, this horse, we’ve just got to manage her.’” - Gerard Ballantyne
“And here we are. She’s now won black-type in two races and she’s still filling out. We’ll give her another two races this campaign, depending on the track.
“She won’t run on anything that is going to jeopardise the knee but we’re looking at a possible autumn campaign once she fully furnishes.”
Binaisse said he has built a program for Felicia that has allowed her to stay sound and most importantly, happy.
A program to suit
“She’s trained on a water walker and beach program so she doesn’t do much on a track at all, she might have a gallop over 600 metres on the grass if it’s open and if it’s wet enough, otherwise she works at the beach,” Binaisse said.
“Trained this way, this horse hasn’t missed a beat and that’s because of the management as well. If the track is too firm then she won’t gallop on it.
“These horses have all been racing this year on softish tracks so they’ve been galloping on them and racing on them but as soon as the tracks dry out and get firm, because their bones aren’t conditioned to it, they can really feel it.
“Especially a horse with a knee problem, the worst thing you can do is put them down on a firm track, so when I took the horse on, that was always the rule. If I thought the track was too firm, the horse gets pulled out. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Group race, so be it, the horse comes first.”
Felicia (left) with her stablemate Mula (right)
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Binaisse and Felicia with the trainer labelling her as a ‘quirky mare’, but he has found the key to keeping her happy and his name is Elvis.
“We struggled to ride her when she first came,” Binaisse said. “She had a lot of vices but she fell in love with our lead pony Elvis.
“He still tows her out to the track every morning when she does work on the track and he stands there and waits for her at the gap. She actually looks for him when she comes around the corner and without him, she would be a nightmare to try and work.
“When she goes to the beach, he goes to the beach with her, when she goes to the races, she just stands there and falls asleep in the stalls as long as he’s there.
"When she (Felicia) goes to the races, she just stands there and falls asleep in the stalls as long as he’s there." - Dean Binaisse
“It was frustrating with the vets after the race on Saturday, they were trying to take urine and they locked her in the box and she didn’t have Elvis there and she ran another race in that box. She came out dripping with sweat and really wound up and upset.
“We ended up getting Elvis and they took blood out of her and as soon as she stood in the stall and had him out the front, she was a good as gold.
“She won’t even roll in our sand roll without Elvis standing out the front. If you put her in there by herself she will try and jump out and hurt herself. That’s how clingy she is.”
Next stop
Felicia, and Elvis, are now in line to head back to Caulfield on October 10 where the mare will contest the G3 Northwood Plume S. and all being well, Binaisse would like to test her over 1400 metres in the G2 Tristarc S. the following week.
However, all of this is merely a bonus for Ballantyne who said he is just happy to see her on a racetrack, let alone winning Group races with a ceiling still to be reached.
“At her first start back she ran third under Damien Oliver, who was half a kilo over, and she was beaten by 0.3l,” Ballantyne said.
“If that was her only run back, we would’ve been really, really happy. Just to have seen her back on the track and to return like that, would’ve been unbelievable because she was never going to set foot on a racetrack again, in the vet's opinions.
“It’s just a wonderful story.”
