X-rays show the champ Copy That 100% - New Zealand Cup here we come!

X-rays this week have shown Copy That to be 100% recovered from his leg injury and it’s all systems go for a defence of the New Zealand Cup in November.

The way Copy That has been working, Lincoln Farms trainer Ray Green hardly needed any reassurance that his flagship horse is back.

But even Green was blown away at the perfect picture of his hind leg, healing calluses on the fractured splint bone no longer visible.

Green said even Lincoln Farms’ vet Lindsay Colwell couldn’t tell now which leg had been injured.

This week’s X-ray.Owner Merv Butterworth greeted the news with great joy, noting it came virtually six months to the day since he lashed out at a fence in his paddock at Romsey in Victoria where he was based for a summer campaign.

Butterworth is looking forward to having his champ back on the racetrack, his earnings closing in on $1 million, and is pleased he has a bit more than four months to prepare for the cup on November 8.

Green expects Copy That to be trialling by the start of August.

“He’s been back in work coming up eight weeks and is looking super now. I’m really pleased with him.’’

Copy That returned home a little porky on May 5 after four and a half months in confinement at Laura Dixon’s Dowling View equine rehabilitation centre.

“But he’s in good nick now. He’s doing a bit of hoppled pacework, a quiet 2400 once or twice a week, and jogging every other day.

“He’s well on target for the New Zealand Cup, unless he has a setback.”

Copy That’s career record stands at 24 wins and 11 placings from 45 starts and a bankroll of $964,297.

He enjoyed a stellar four-year-old year, smashed his rivals in the New Zealand Cup and won 15 of his 25 races and $777,098.

Progressive X-rays of Copy That’s injury show excellent healing of the splint bone. PHOTO: Ballarat Veterinary Clinic.