Thanks IRT! Ray back on his hind legs and smiling thanks to cup sponsor’s gift

The Ray Green smile was back today - thanks to some timely generosity from IRT managing director Richard Cole.

Green, in Middlemore Hospital recovering from major stomach surgery after being kicked, delighted in being given a large, framed montage of Copy That’s back-to-back wins in the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup.

The display, by Race Images’ Ajay Berry, captured brilliantly the memory of some glory days which Green is holding on to as he begins his long road to recovery.

Green was up and about in the ward day room today, discussing the preparation of his team at Lincoln Farms with foreman Andrew Drake.

“I’m lucky the stable is in very good hands,” Green said. “Andrew is liaising really well with me and they know what to do. We’ll get through this.”

It’s a far cry from the initial prognosis when the surgeon who operated on Green for seven hours last Monday told his wife Debbie “he’s not out of the woods yet. Don’t get your hopes up too high.”

“It was a bit of a worry for two or three days. I definitely thought I was dead. It was horrendous.”

IRT’s Richard Cole and his uncle David join Merv and Meg Butterworth on the victory dais at Addington. PHOTO: Ajay Berry/Race ImagesApart from the pain, Green said he couldn’t eat or drink or sleep.

“It was tough. I didn’t sleep for three days, tossing and turning and vomiting. But the last three days I’ve been getting better and better. And last night I had a really good night’s sleep.”

Nibbling on a hard boiled egg and some beetroot, Green told how apart from half an avocado he’d eaten very little the previous week.

With postoperative ileus, where the body basically shuts down and rejects food or water, Green said he had to wait for his bowel and gut to start functioning again.

He’s back in semi-working order again now but will have to wear a stoma bag for the next few months - surgeons created a hole in his abdomen through which a tube now funnels away his body wastes.

Stoma bag named Rose

Green, who has nicknamed the bag “Rose”, after his treasured No. 1 hospital nurse, said he’d been kicked plenty of times in the past but nothing approaching the severity of what happened last week.

“I couldn’t believe how hard that filly kicked me or why it would want to. It was unreal. It just barrelled me and I went flying through the air. Luckily I had my helmet on.”

Green said after initially protesting he’d be fine with 30 minutes rest, he knew after five minutes he was in trouble and needed to go to hospital.

“You can get a bit macho sometimes in this business. You think you can be a tough guy, take the kicks and bounce back.

“When I woke up after the operation all the texts were coming in saying ‘you’re tough, you’ll bounce back’ but I don’t think they understood just how bad it was.”

Green still hopes to recover faster than his doctors anticipate - he’s expecting to be discharged in the next few days and hopes to visit the stables by Friday.

He’s hoping to get back to the races next week when Copy That will be entered for a mobile mile, the cup winner’s last chance to get fit for the $50,000 Thames Summer Cup (2200m) the following week.

Whether or not Copy That gets a start remains to be seen. Last week he and Hot And Treacherous were scrubbed out by Harness Racing New Zealand because they were deemed to be too good for their opposition.

The Summer Cup and the $50,000 Lincoln Farms Franklin Cup (2700m) on December 31, are both standing starts with a maximum back mark of 30 metres.