Learning to play the patience game

THOMAS O’Leary holds the halter of stable star Scarthy Lad in one hand, while the other hoses the ‘Stay Sound’ compound from the horse’s off foreleg. There’s a wistful, but resigned, look on his face as the plaster-esque substance dilutes and runs down the drain.

“It could be right in one month, or it could be eleven months – you just never know,” the youthful Clonakilty trainer sighs.

It is five days since he first noticed the dreaded heat in Scarthy’s leg which indicated a strain or slight tear in the tendon. It is a potentially disastrous set-back for the horse and his many connections, owned as he is by a fourteen-strong syndicate based at the Whistle Inn in the West Cork hamlet of Ballinascarthy.