After weeks of waiting, champion reinsman Dexter Dunn has been granted a working visa to drive in the United States.
Dunn will team up with former Kiwi trainer Chris Ryder for a driving stint that is expected to last less than two months.
The reinsman will leave for his American campaign next month.
In May, Dunn announced he planned to drive in North America but struggled to get a working visa.
Bizarrely, the former world championship winner and 10-time New Zealand champion reinsman had to prove to US authorities he was of a world-class standard.
Dunn had been waiting until this week for his visa application to be reconsidered.
Ryder received the good news about Dunn the same week the career of his leading filly was devastated by injury.
His champion 3yr-old pacer, trained by Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen, may never race in Australasia again.
Shez All Rock, winner of the New South Wales, Victoria and New Zealand Oaks, will miss next month’s Breeders Crown in Victoria after pulling up sore following a training run this week.
"It is not too serious and in time she should be fine," Purdon said on his stable’s website.
"She had been treated for a little knee problem before she came over [to New Zealand] and it has probably been an underlying condition."
The horse could be flown to New Jersey to undergo surgery for a knee problem. That would mean she may have run her last race in Australasia.
"I am not sure what the immediate future is.
"She could have a good spell here but Chris has yet to make up his mind and if some surgery is required he may prefer to take her up there [New Jersey] and have it done," Purdon said.
Purdon and Rasmussen’s former stable star, Lazarus, will have his first official hit-out on American soil at 1am tomorrow New Zealand time.
Lazarus has drawn barrier 1 in a one-mile (1609m) qualifying event.
New trainer Jimmy Takter is not expecting Lazarus to be fully taxed by the workout.
". . . this is his first [qualifier] and we will just use it as a training mile and not fully stretch him out", he tweeted.
