It has been a long road back for Apache Crown who makes his reappearance in the Group 3 $200,000 Kranji Sprint over 1200m on Friday night.

The Steven Burridge-trained galloper hasn’t raced since finishing fourth in Dubai at the Meydan racetrack in January last year.

Apache Crown was one of a group of four gallopers that Burridge sent to Dubai in 2012 – with Captain Obvious, Dark Matter and El Padrino all proving successful on that trip.

Unfortunately Apache Crown suffered a condylar fracture to a cannon bone in his one and only start in Dubai, when finishing fourth over the straight 1200m course, and has been off the scene for the best part of 15 months since.

The now seven-year-old returned home from Dubai with Burridge’s other runners and was given time to recover from the injury before requiring surgery which put him to the sidelines for even longer.

“We got him back here and thought he had recovered so we put him into work in late May, early June last year,” said Burridge.

“But after a month or so he went sore so we had him x-rayed and then operated on, putting a pin in to fix the problem.

“He required another three months off in the box to get him over the operation and the injury and so far, touch wood, he’s had no trouble.

“It’s been a long wait for the owners to see him back to the racetrack and I would say he’s going to need this race and possibly another before we see the best of him after such a long break.”

With a rating of 91, Burridge said there were a lot of options for him to kick-start Apache Crown’s comeback to racing which has seen him have two trials – one a jumpout and the next an official trial over 1000m last week.

“With the rating he’s got it’s pretty difficult to pick the right race,” said Burridge. “This race isn’t ideal but there wasn’t really much more around for him to start back again.

“We’ll probably have to drop him back to a Benchmark 97 over 1000m in a few weeks time and race him back into a bit of form. After that I’ll have to sit down and have a good look to see what is around.

“He’s had the two trials for his comeback. One a jumpout and the other an official trial where he led and got tired in the last bit.

“The important thing for Friday night is that he gets through the race and gets back safely.”

A winner of two of his 18 starts, Apache Crown will be ridden by Matthew Kellady in Friday night’s race which will be run under handicap conditions with no allowances for eligible riders.

“Matt’s ridden him in most of his races and rides him in his work, so he’s kept the ride on him on Friday night,” said Burridge.

“When he first got here he wanted to bolt on the track and proved a real handful, but Matt’s got a good understanding of him and he’s settled down a lot.”

Apache Crown, by Beautiful Crown from Genoese, has proven a good money-spinner for connections. Besides his two victories, the gelding has a further eight minor placings for a shade more than $270,000 in prizemoney.