Hay List is continuing to recover well from the leg infection that has put his career on hold and ruled him out of any further starts this year.

The rising six-year-old has been housed at the Randwick Equine Centre for close to a month after he failed to recover on his own.

Hay List has already been out of action since before the Doomben 10,000 in May and is now not expected to return to racing until autumn next year, ruling out any chance of a Hong Kong or Singapore campaign later this year.

Trainer John McNair is mindful that while Hay List is progressing well, he is not yet out of the woods.

“I went to see him yesterday and he was OK,” McNair said.

“But he only just came off the antibiotics on Saturday.

“Past experience with him tells me the third or fourth day is critical.

“If we get past that then I hope to bring him home at the end of the week.

“The vets are happy and he has been trotting up sound but I’m guarded.”

McNair is also facing the possibility of losing his 29-year-old mare Hooch, who was the mother of McNair’s very first Group 1 winner Highpak.

“She has pneumonia and it’s very worrying in a horse her age,” McNair said.

“She has been with me when I started training and is the mother of Highpak who won the Karrakatta Plate in Perth in 1989 when it was a Group One race.

“She is obviously a very special mare to me.”

McNair will put his worries behind him when he takes to the track at Warwick Farm this Saturday with his rising 14-year-old gelding Mustard.

Mustard, who has won more than $700,000 in prize money, will be looking for a dry track come Saturday’s race.

“Mustard is incredible and the plan is for him to come back probably over 1200 metres in the first week in August,” McNair said.

“He is not a winter horse, he doesn’t like the wet tracks, but he’s fit and well and wants to race again.”

Mustard has had a total of 119 race starts during his career, winning 17 races and placing 29 times.