Within hours of winning the A G Hunter Cup, outstanding pacer Swayzee was staring death in the face.
In what he has called “an act of God’s good grace”, Ted Caruana noticed a fire rapidly approaching his property, where the Jason Grimson-trained Swayzee stayed during the weekend.
Soon after raising the alarm, Caruana had 18 trucks on his Rockbank land, with his family told to evacuate, with fire crews battling the blaze until the early hours of this morning.
“The only reason the horses are alive is because I broke my routine and went to feed them earlier than usual,” Caruana said.
“Swayzee, Aardies Express and Seaton Grima’s horses were being picked up for transport, so I went to feed them at 3:30 instead of 5.
“That’s when I saw the flames coming at us and called it in.
“The fire got within a maximum of 100 meters from the horses, and in the end, my track acted as a fire break and may have saved them according to the fire brigade.
“If I didn’t go out earlier than usual, I would’ve been in the house escaping the heat and had no clue what was going on.
“Jason was at the APG Sales”
Several trucks are still extinguishing embers this morning, with arson detectives investigating the cause.
“The whole lot were here until 4am and there are still some trucks here now,” Caruana said. “It went from my place to the Rockbank train station, which is about three kilometres diagonally.
“I’d hate to think it was horse related, and I wouldn’t go there by making a claim, but the arson squad is here to figure out how it started.
“Given the heat and the dry fields, it’s most likely just one of those things.”