Classy racemare Starvoia and her trainers could be likened to a duck paddling furiously under water.
They all looked calm and collected at the races at Cromwell yesterday where the horse let down with a big finish to win the rating 85 sprint (1220m). But that scene does not show the how busy the talented mare keeps her North Canterbury trainers, John and Karen Parsons, and their staff when she is away from the track.
Constant feet troubles keep the Parsons team on their toes trying to hold the mare in racing order and able to show the dynamic form she has shown in two starts this season.
"She is a bit of a worry. She has got feet problems and hopefully we can keep on top of them," John Parsons said.
The mare will have her next start at the track where she sustained a different kind of injury which kept her out of racing more than seven months.
In a freak occurrence, Starvoia fractured her knee during a race at Wingatui in March and will return to there on Boxing Day to race at listed level.
• Popular racing photographer Wayne Huddleston had his hands full after Flytime won the next race on the Cromwell programme, a rating 65 over 1200m.
Huddleston, of Alexandra, is the official racing photographer for the both the thoroughbred and harness racing codes for clubs in Otago and Southland.
He takes thousands of photos of happy connections with their horses in the birdcage after their wins.
That task was made a little trickier yesterday as he shares in the ownership of the Russel and Ashley McKay-trained Flytime.
Flytime was ridden by Krishna Mudhoo, who is an apprentice with the Parsons stable. Mudhoo also won the last race on the card on the Danny Crozier-trained Princess Athena.
