Cruz praises 'world class' veterinary team after Smart Currency's feat

Tony Cruz laid all credit for yesterday's win by Smart Currency with the Jockey Club's veterinary team, who helped the four-year-old overcome an extremely rare condition to regain his soundness and top form.

When Smart Currency won first-up down the Sha Tin straight track on October 1, he looked like a useful sprinter who might be going places. Unfortunately, the only place he ended up going was to the veterinary hospital to have a strange growth surgically removed from one sesamoid.

'He had the surgery on his front fetlock,' Cruz said. 'It was a boney growth, almost like a tumour, growing on the outside of the sesamoid bone. It just kept enlarging.

'The veterinary team at the Jockey Club is world class, I must say. They knew it was a very rare condition, but they did their homework and took the best possible outside advice before deciding to operate.

'All credit to them. The horse has taken one run to get properly fit and now he's on. But the outlook for his future is still guarded.

'He's a big horse, around 1,300 pounds, and he has big flat feet. I'm going to keep him racing down the straight course because I'm concerned he might injure himself or have some other problems on the turns' he added.