Tendon tear means it’s the end of the road for poor Tommy but we’ll never forget you, mate

Few horses that Lincoln Farms has raced over the years captured the hearts of their partners like Tommy Lincoln.

So it’s a safe bet to say a tear or two was shed when they received news today that his tendon injury was bad enough to force his retirement.

Trainer Mark Dux’s recommendation was reasonably straight forward when scans showed quite a large tear in his nearside foreleg tendon, damage which would take 12 months of rehab to repair with no guarantee he would make it back to the track or stay sound even if he got there.

It comes just a few weeks after one of his career best performances, finishing second in a heat of the Interdominion Championships in Brisbane, a highpoint of what has been a four-year rollercoaster for Tommy and his owners.

While largely out of sight in Brisbane for the last two and a half years, Tommy wasn’t forgotten, the gentle giant having endeared himself to so many people in the early days at Alexandra Park in 2019 and 2020.

Shannon Flay and sister Brenda with their pride and joy.Lincoln Farms’ owners John and Lynne Street always had a full hospitality room when Tommy raced, many of their relatives taking small shares, like first-timers Debbie Sparks and Ian and Kathy Parksinon, always with children in tow.

Tommy was never a horse you looked at twice, described in the early days as big and gormless by trainer Ray Green, but he had plenty of visitors each time he raced, patting him and posing for photos.

Shannon Flay, and latterly her sister Brenda, never missed a racenight, the horse a living reminder of their late father Arthur who died three weeks before he won his first race.

It was Arthur who selected Tommy, experiencing “love at first sight” when he was paraded as a yearling at Lincoln Farms.

And when Tommy surprisingly won his second, third and fourth races, Shannon Flay was there, overcome in the winner’s circle, with her father’s wedding ring in her pocket for good luck.

The day Ray Green paraded Tommy Lincoln and it was love at first sight for the late Arthur Flay.Fellow partners Ray Menzies, Denis Ebert and Ian Middleton might not have been as emotional but it wasn’t hard to become attached to Tommy and the way he inexplicably was able to control his long gangly legs to hit the winning post first.

But Tommy found it tough rocketing up the ratings so quickly and, even though he beat Star Galleria over a mile in October, 2020 and then took the scalp of stablemate Copy That in the Summer Cup a couple of months later, Lincoln Farms had him earmarked for Queensland.

His game sixth, clocking 1:52.5 in South Coast Arden’s Four-year-old Emerald at the 2021 Harness Jewels at Cambridge, signalled his final race in New Zealand.

But even though he departed with eight Auckland wins and a $97,515 bankroll, he ended up more than doubling that with Dux.

In 54 starts in Brisbane, Tommy won another eight races and A$119,244, taking his career total to A$220,691.

“Not many horses win $220,000,” Dux said today of the rising seven-year-old.

“Tommy’s done a grand job and it’s a shame given you’d think he still had a couple of seasons in him.

“Tommy’s a nice old horse. I’d like to have a stable full like him. They don’t have to win all the time, just be competitive, pay their way, and give you a bit of fun along the way.”

While Tommy won only two of his last 35 starts, finding it harder at the free-for-all level where draws play such a big part, Dux noted he was seldom far off the money.

Top junior Angus Garrard in one of his three wins behind Tommy Lincoln. PHOTO: Dan Costello.In all, from 83 starts he notched 16 wins, 13 seconds, eight thirds and 11 fourths, giving him a 58% record of finishing in the top four.

“He may not have won the better races but he was still good enough to be competitive in them.

“A lot of horses die rated c2 and c3. Tommy went all the way to the top and ran second in a heat of the Interdoms, racing at the very best level.”

Dux said you’d never pick Tommy out on good looks in a line-up.

“He’s not like a Copy That or an American Dealer - you only have to look at them to know they’re decent horses. He’s a plain sort of horse, a bit raw boned.”

The fact Tommy is also big and heavy is another reason why Dux says the odds are against him making a successful comeback and one which is playing on his mind when deciding whether to accept Lincoln Farms’ offer to take over the horse himself.

“He hits the ground hard. If he was lighter framed, or a lower class horse, where they’re not running 1:52 miles every week, you might have a better chance.

Scans revealed this significant lesion in Tommy Lincoln’s tendon.“Yes, I’d like to have a shot, but there’d be a lot of work to be done to get him back. It’s no five minute fix. There’s a decent sized lesion where the tear is. And you can’t just throw them in the paddock or they don’t heal properly.”

To help the tendon fibres realign, platelet rich plasma therapy or something similar would be needed to give him the best chance of recovery.

“The more I talk about it, the more I’m thinking, no, I shouldn’t do it. There are no guarantees with these injuries and you could just be postponing the inevitable.

“It would be 12 months before you look like getting near the track and that’s if everything goes well. And there’d be nothing worse than spending all that time and a lot of money only to see his tendon go again.

“I’m still thinking about it - and I’ll talk to my brothers about whether they want to mess round with him - but realistically I think we’ll end up trying to find him a good home.”

That might not be a simple job either.

“He’s not the easiest horse to do things with. He’s good round the stable but try and ride him or put him in a buggy and he can get keen and want to take off.

“But I’m sure we could find a home for him somewhere - even if it’s just eating grass.”

Tommy Lincoln, by American Ideal out of Tania Tandias, took a best winning mile rate of 1:52.7.

But long after the stats are forgotten, he’ll still be there in the minds and hearts of his owners.

* You can reminisce about the good and not so good times with Tommy here.