A first-up third in the Australian Cup behind Fifty Stars in March 2020 was promising before trouble began when he hurt his back on a heavy track a month later in his one and only run in Sydney.
Vow And Declare battled on but failed to recapture form in the spring and his trainer Danny O’Brien sent him for a spell after finishing 18th in the 2020 Melbourne Cup.
On the way home from the Easter Cup at Caulfield, his first run in 2021, he shifted his plate and a nail went into his foot. When he was slow to recover he had surgery and the operation found a bony sequestrum, which set him back again before he hurt his tendon at his second run in that spring campaign.
“We thought seriously about retiring him,” O’Brien said.
“If the injury had been at the higher end of the scale and if it had looked like it would be too hard to rehab, we would have.”
But horses with the staying talent come along about as often as quality key forwards in the AFL, so Vow And Declare’s owners were keen to explore every recovery avenue before making the call.
Trainer Danny O’Brien and his family – wife Nina and kids Grace and Thomas – pose with the good-natured Vow And Declare after his Melbourne Cup win in 2019.Credit:Getty Images
Vow And Declare was sent to Lee Evison’s rehabilitation property in Longwarry and a detailed, considered recovery process started, not only getting the tendon to settle but building enough strength to withstand racing.
“Eighty per cent of what we do is controlled graded exercise. As they heal we just increase their work,” Evison said.
He noticed in the striking chestnut the combination of physiology and mental toughness that make Vow And Declare both a powerful athlete, and more vulnerable to hurting himself.
“The better quality horses try a bit harder, so they are going to be more susceptible to injury,” Evison said.
Although his work ethic and resilience won Evison’s admiration, it was the horse’s nature that hit the horseman and his staff’s soft spot.
“He was an amazing animal to work with, such a kind, lovely nature, and a beautiful horse,” Evison said.
After about six months at Oakland Lodge with Evison he was ready to return to O’Brien’s property in Barwon Heads. Over this winter, the stable became increasingly confident Vow And Declare would return to racing. If not, he was great to have around in the cold mornings when the wind whips into the property off Bass Strait.
“[He is] a beautiful animal to deal with. He has just got a great nature, and he is very friendly and very obliging. He can literally take little kids into his box and he will be happy to see them,” O’Brien said.
Vow And Declare returns to scale after winning the 2019 Melbourne CupCredit:Eddie Jim
“Some horses just like to be left alone – like some people – but he is very much a horse who can’t do enough to do whatever you want him to do.”
Instead of being housed at Flemington, as he was for most of the 2019 spring carnival, Vow And Declare stayed down on the Bellarine Peninsula for most of this preparation, regularly heading to 13th Beach to stride a 1200-metre stretch of sand where horses do their work before splashing in the shallows.
With every step along the way O’Brien became more bullish about Vow And Declare, although he describes his regular messages to owners as “cautiously optimistic”.
After a couple of jump outs and a promising start over 1600m at Caulfield, O’Brien settled Vow And Declare for a month before he returned to Flemington this September for his first run at headquarters since the 2020 Melbourne Cup.
As he watched Vow And Declare run the 2500m O’Brien realised his optimism was well-founded as the horse ran third, his first placing since early 2020.
“He sat back then savaged the line with 61 kilos,” O’Brien said.
Evison, a Warragul product who became a noted harness racing trainer in New Zealand before developing a reputation as one of the most capable people in the world when it comes to rehabilitating thoroughbreds, got a kick out of what he was seeing too.
“It’s hard not to [notice] when they are such nice animals. You follow their career and ride every bump and ride every emotion in the big races,” Evison said.
O’Brien knows how much work has gone into getting Vow And Declare back for his third Melbourne Cup, his admiration for the horse only matched by his concern.
“We have been happy he has pulling up after each run so well. The preparation has gone very smoothly,” O’Brien said.
“If anything had gone wrong in the last six months he would have been immediately retired.”
Nothing has gone wrong so Blake Shinn will jump aboard Vow And Declare, three years after the seven-year-old’s biggest triumph, and attempt to make the horse just the seventh multiple winner of the Melbourne Cup and the first to do so with a three-year gap between wins. More than 1000 days have passed, many in lockdown, since that 2019 win that made Vow And Declare part of racing history.
Whatever happens, the horse is fit, healthy and firing. That’s all anyone around him wanted.
“It’s a credit to the horse and to Danny’s system,” Evison said.
