Gelded Green Belt back on track

Once considered one of the more promising three-year-olds in Melbourne, Green Belt will resume in a benchmark 70 over 1400m at Flemington on Saturday after nearly two years off the scene with a tendon injury.

A winner of his first two starts in January 2022, the Mick Price & Michael Kent Jnr trained galloper then ran second in the Listed Daybreak Lover Stakes (1400m) at Doomben before injury struck.

“Green Belt was an entire and he was very talented and he was in Queensland working on the course proper and did a tendon so he’s been gelded and had a long rehab,” Mick Price said.

The road back from such an injury is long with Green Belt visiting renowned horse rehabilitation expert Lee Everson, who is also treating Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight.

“Always (tough). Lee Everson, long time out, lot of time and money and expertise spent on him to get a tendon back. Never great but he’s had a really good prep and if he shows up and pulls up good, that’d be great.”

Price is wary about how the now five-year-old will return, suggesting the trip will be short of his best and that it can be difficult to know how any horse will go after tendon rehabilitation.

“I would think as good as he goes, the 1400 metres and the layoff is against him.””His best distance is somewhere between a mile and 2000 metres but I certainly didn’t want him suffering any fatigue in a race because tendon’s and fatigue go together,” Price said.

“I’m thinking it will just be a nice 1400 metre run for him, then we’ll get him back to the mile.”

Green Belt opened as favourite but has drifted slightly to $3.80 second elect with Celine Gaudray to ride from barrier three.