Alastor diagnosed as bleeder

Trainer Mark Ford has dubbed him “by far the best 2 year old that I’ve ever had,” but Alastor Hanover is going to have to overcome more than just his group of fellow 3-year-old pacers if he wants to find his way to the $1.5-million Pepsi North America Cup, June 17 at Woodbine.

Alastor Hanover, a son of Rustler Hanover, recently raced in an elimination of the Max Hempt at Pocono Downs in Pennsylvania on May 13 where things took an unfortunate turn for the worse.

“We then took him to Pocono and drew the eight-hole with a vicious bunch of colts,” said Ford, who trains the colt for New York’s Martin Scharf and Pennsylvania’s Vicki Fair. “We ended up having to race him on the front, which probably wasn’t good, but, for the first time since we’ve ever raced him, he pulled right up to a walk finishing.”

After being parked to the opening quarter-mile and battling on the front-end through the middle half-mile, Alastor Hanover faded in the lane, eventually finishing over nine lengths back in eighth, pacing his mile in 1:54-flat.

“We scoped him afterwards and found out that he had a massive lung infection and had bled as bad as a horse could have bled,” said Ford. “We put him on lasix and we’ve been treating him very aggressively during the week.

“This has been a little bit of a setback, but hopefully we’ve caught it early enough. This has basically knocked a month out of our schedule.”

“We were very excited and optimistic with ‘Alastor’ coming back [this year],” Ford said. “He qualified right in the riggin’ and everything was very good.”

Off his pair of victorious qualifiers to start his 3-year-old campaign, Alastor Hanover, a winner of $446,810 last season, debuted in an elimination of the Berry’s Creek at the Meadowlands on April 29.

“We were ecstatic about the way he raced in the elimination – he followed along and got right into the final like we wanted,” Ford said of Alastor Hanover, who finished fourth, 1¾ lengths in arrears, pacing his mile in 1:51.2 after a fourth-over trip. “We expected a very big trip from him in the final, but things didn’t work out the way they should’ve. He ended up being first-over into a brutal headwind and he didn’t finish up very well.”

Alastor Hanover ended up finishing eighth in the $225,000 final, beaten more than seven lengths, pacing his mile in 1:52-flat.

“I was concerned with the trip that he got, but I chalked it up to it being his first start into a brutal headwind against a very nice bunch of colts,” Ford explained. “I chalked it up to that, and maybe that was a mistake on my part. [Driver John] Campbell was concerned with the way he pulled up, in regards to his breathing.”

On where he will go next with ‘Alastor,’ Ford has the opportunity to qualify him, but is leaning more towards racing him in a stakes event in Ontario.

“Hopefully we’ll have him back to race either in an [O.S.S.] Grassroots event or a division of the Burlington [June 3, Woodbine].”

(WEG release)

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