3 minute read

Talented galloper No Impediment ($2.25 favourite on TAB) can complete a hat-trick of wins at Kembla Grange on Thursday but trainer Amanda Turner considers herself fortunate to have even got this far with her emerging sprinter.

No Impediment is something of a miracle horse for the Warwick Farm conditioner after she nearly lost the gelding before he made his first start.

The classy son of Unencumbered needed to undergo a pair of throat operations before his racing career began, the second of which nearly proved fatal.

"He needed a throat operation to help his breathing but the first one didn't work," Amanda Turner explained.

"You don't normally do it again but I said he's worth it. The second one worked but unfortunately, he got an abscess and got very sick and almost died.

"We had to get the vet to come out on a Sunday because I told them he needs to be lanced and he was at the point where he couldn't travel.

"They had to keep an eye on him for the next couple of days."

Luckily No Impediment made a full recovery and was quick to show why Turner held such a high opinion of him, winning his first trial comfortably by 3-1/2 lengths in September last year.

"It was like winning the Melbourne Cup when he won his first trial. It was a huge relief," she said.

Since then No Impediment has built a competitive record of three wins and two placings from six career starts. The rising six-year-old has won at his past two at Gosford and then Goulburn as he prepares to complete a winning treble in the Fred Hood Conditional Benchmark 68 Handicap (1200m) on Thursday.

It will be the first time No Impediment steps out over six furlongs with all his previous starts over the 1000m.

"I think he will run it out," Turner said. "I was concerned the other day at Goulburn, things didn't go his way but he won well.

"I think the extra furlong should suit him nicely when he can be more comfortable in transit but it will depend on his throat. We've had to take it slowly with him but I think that's been the right thing to do and he's ready now.

"We have him as good as we can get him and this is obviously another step up again into 68 grade but we are very happy with him."

Kathy O'Hara will be in the saddle on Thursday with No Impediment to carry a 60kg impost. No Impediment is the favourite to continue on winning ways in the final event on the card at Kembla.