Milton Harris returning home from 'life-threatening' spell in Thailand hospital

Milton Harris expects to fly home to Britain this week after spending two weeks in hospital in Thailand, more than half of which was in intensive care with “life-threatening” blood clots.

As well as being eager to leave hospital, the trainer is relishing the prospect of returning to the racecourse for the reappearance of his unbeaten juvenile hurdler Scriptwriter at Doncaster on Saturday and for the hurdling debut of Gentle Slopes, described by Harris as “the apple of my eye”.

Harris was taken ill after arriving in Thailand, where he had been due to spend a week on a golfing holiday with friends. However, speaking from hospital on Tuesday the trainer said his ordeal was near its end.

“I’m sat here now waiting for the results of blood tests and I’m hoping to fly home on Thursday,” he said.

“I feel fine and I don’t think there’s anything to stop me leaving, although I’m not particularly looking forward to the 13-hour flight home.

“I’ve been here for 13 days, eight of which have been in intensive care. The flight over was 11 and a half hours and I slept for nine of them, and I don’t normally do that. When I got off the plane I knew not long after I was in trouble as I had a severe pain.

Milton Harris: 'When I got off the plane I knew not long after I was in trouble'Credit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

“I was taken to hospital at 3am and the staff at the hospital were brilliant, in no time I had been seen, blood tests were taken, I’d been x-rayed and had been admitted to intensive care.”

Despite being admitted to hospital, Harris has kept a close eye on operations at his yard and praised the hard work and stoicism of his staff in his absence.

“The team has been extraordinary,” he said. “There are a lot of young staff there who have been brilliant and Tony Charlton, my assistant, couldn’t have been better. I’ve been kept up to date with videos every day and I’ve still been making all the entries and declarations.

“What happened to me was life-threatening but it wasn’t debilitating, so I’ve been able to stay active and the horses have kept me sane. My lungs filled with blood as I had pulmonary embolisms in both lungs, so it wasn't nice, but because it wasn't debilitating there are people worse off than me.”

Scriptwriter (middle): looks set to follow in stablemate Knight Salute's footstepsCredit: Edward Whitaker

Harris is preparing to run two of his most promising young horses this week, with Listed bumper winner Gentle Slopes engaged in novice hurdles at Bangor and Cheltenham on Friday, while Scriptwriter is likely to run in the Listed bet365 Summit Juvenile Hurdle at Doncaster on Saturday, a race won last year by stablemate Knight Salute.

“We’ve got some nice horses and it always helps to have them there,” Harris said. “Gentle Slopes, who is the apple of my eye, runs on Friday and is one I’m looking forward to as well as Scriptwriter.

“Scriptwriter is going to run and at the moment we’re leaning towards Doncaster with him. He gets less of a penalty going there and it’s the same route we took with Knight Salute last year.

“He’s a very nice horse and without wanting to sound like I’m doing Knight Salute down, because he’s an absolute legend of a horse, this fella has got more class than him.

“I don’t think we’ll run Scriptwriter as often as we ran Knight Salute. We’ll go at the weekend with him and then that’d be him until something like the Adonis Hurdle at Kempton in February, that’s the thought process at the moment.”

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