Kentuckiana Lodge star Krug has a spring in his step and is ready to head to Addington next week.
The Cran and Chrissie Dalgety trained pacer will start for the second time this spring following his fifth in the Hannon Memorial.
Cran didn’t his mince words when assessing his Group One performances fresh up effort at Oamaru.
“He ran a shocker to be perfectly honest.”
“The sectional times they ran were well within what he can do, which meant initially there was a bit of head-scratching.”
“But it became quite obvious very quickly that there was a good reason for it.”
“He just didn’t seem his happy self after the race and he was off colour once he got home in the following days.”
“We got on to it very quickly and treated him and now he is as bright as a button.”
“It might sound a bit funny but it was actually a relief that we had an issue because if he was fit and healthy and ran like he did we would really be wondering what to do next.”
“The main thing now is we can put this behind us and carry on with our preparation.”
“We are not the only ones that have had these kind of issues to deal with this spring.”
“There have been a few bugs going around and so far Krug is the only horse we have had that has been off-colour.”
With his hiccup behind him, the Kentuckiana camp has been thrilled with how Krug has been training.
“He had a few days off and now he is feeling like his old again,” Cran said.
“He hasn’t lost any real fitness as such, but he will take good benefit from a run.”
“That is the important thing now, to get a good solid race into him.”
“I think if we can do that next Friday it will be a great step forward.”
Krug has plenty of options after he starts in a 2600m handicap at Addington next week.
The Dalgety camp will assess how he comes through the run and then decide on a plan of attack leading into the New Zealand Cup.
The Ashburton Flying Stakes, the Kaikoura Cup and the New Zealand Cup Trial are all strong options.
