Schiffer sidelined after knee chip
DURBAN - Schiffer, a highly promising three-year-old Var filly who has been compared to her illustrious former stable companion Val De Ra, has chipped a knee and will be given a lengthy break after the necessary surgery, meaning she will miss the Cape summer season.
Trainer Dennis Drier was devastated by the turn of events that followed her impressive win over 1000m at Clairwood last Wednesday. He said she was “jarred up’’ the next morning and then felt pain upon flexion of the knee, so x-rays were taken and a small chip was found on her off-fore knee. Her connections have made a unanimous decision to operate in order to save her racing career.
Her injury is a huge blow for the Drier yard as she was set to be one of the trump cards among a strong team that Drier is taking to Cape Town on Friday next week.
It is also a big blow for Gaynor Rupert and Lindy White, owners of Drakenstein and Avontuur Studs respectively, as well as the filly’s third coowner, Lindy’s former sister-inlaw Leigh Taberer.
Lindy, who currently lives in Australia with her husband Jake White - the former Springbok rugby coach - attended last Wednesday’s race meeting and was excited about the filly’s future racing career.
Drier said jockey Sean Cormack had not felt anything untoward with the filly throughout the race or in the pull-up afterwards and that on first appearances she had seemed only slightly lame the next morning.
Schiffer has had only three starts to date, running out an easy winner of two 1000m Clairwood events and finishing third in the Grade 1 Golden Slipper over 1 400m on Durban July Day.
In her two winning races she showed blistering early pace followed by the ability to kick on again in the final stages, the same assets that allowed her paternal half-sister Val De Ra, the 2010-2011 Equus Sprinter Of The Year, to win 11 of her 13 starts, including three Grade 1 races.