A winner in at the deep end

Sue Montgomery looks at the return from surgery of a Cheltenham favourite

FOR a leg-weary athlete, there is nothing like an invigorating dip in the pool, a session in the Jacuzzi and a bask under the sunlamp, and the reigning champion hurdler Alderbrook is no exception. But his sessions at an equine Brittas Empire are not merely luxurious indulgence. Without them, he would not be lining up at Wincanton on Thursday to begin the defence of his Cheltenham crown.

The concept of taking a horse to water is not new, but time was when only those with access to a beach could let their charges enjoy the therapeutic effects of paddling. Now, nearly every training centre has some sort of spa, and your modern racehorse has to be as much Duncan Goodhew as Linford Christie.

Danoli spent a lot of time swimming after he broke his leg and Alderbrook, too, donned his water wings out of necessity. When he returned to Kim Bailey's Upper Lambourn yard last October, the legs that so gallantly took him to Champion Hurdle victory seven months previously were showing signs of wear and tear and surgery on both his front ankles became the only option.

"He was very sore, and we tried everything to get to the bottom of it," Bailey said. "We used scanners from the Nuffield and Radcliffe hospitals, and eventually we found chips of bone in his joints. He had an operation to remove them and spent three weeks in his box. It was supposed to be two months, but on that schedule he would not have made Cheltenham, so we started exercising him in water."

The seven-year-old was taken for twice-daily 20-minute sessions to a local water treadmill, a sort of elongated bath with a moving floor, that let him come back into work with minimum strain on his legs. Up to his belly in warm water with Jacuzzi jets playing on his limbs and easing away his aches and pains, Alderbrook waded his way back to fitness. And by the end of November he had a saddle on his back again.

"That depth of water gives him 40 per cent buoyancy to take his weight off his joints, but getting through the water makes him work his muscles and lungs hard," Bailey said. "In a session he would do the equivalent of a two-mile walk through the sea."

Most horses enjoy working in water once they get used to it: the benefits are mental as well as physical. Bailey said: "Alderbrook is good as gold, but he does have one little quirk. Because he's still a full horse, the water lapping around his balls must be a shade ticklish, and he very quickly learned that the buzzer meant the end of the session. As soon as it sounded he stopped dead, and was out of there without being asked."

It will be a remarkable training feat if the glass-legged champion, who will be popped over a couple of hurdles this morning by his new partner, Graham Bradley, can get to Cheltenham, and a remarkable performance if he can retain his title. And Alderbrook's attitude during his rehabilitation has increased his trainer's regard for him. "It is a pleasure training him," Bailey said. "He is a tough, sensible professional who does everything you ask of him willingly, and I think I have more affection for him than any horse in the yard."

If a return of winter weather this week forestalls Alderbrook's comeback in the Kingwell Hurdle, then he will go straight to Cheltenham, via the treadmill. "We do not ride him in the snow," Bailey said. "Too much risk of it balling up in his feet and making him slip or stumble." It will be a case of getting there through hell and high water.