Lee Horner begins each morning with a rehabilitation routine that not only serves to strengthen his broken leg, but also to reassure him of as to why he gets out of bed so early.

That reason comes in the form of a racehorse that is neither a star nor could even be termed as remotely handy. He is Undergroundfighter, a distinctly slow jumper who has not won since 2016 and lately, has struggled to keep up in a long lost list of steeplechases races stretching from Melbourne to Oakbank.

But those mere bald facts mask what might be the true purpose of the 10-year-old. He may be poor in galloping talent but the veteran of 91 starts – more than 50 of those over the jumps - is rich in mentoring and nurturing skills for both horses and humans.

Undergroundfighter, who is out of the mare French Resistence, has been transferred to the stables of Horner’s wife Amy McDonald at Ballarat by co-owner and former trainer Tony Rosolini, who responded to Horner’s pleas to have the horse in his later racing years after sharing a long history with the notorious plodder.

“Since I broke my leg (in March) I’ve used him to half rehab myself,” Horner said. “He is the first horse I ride each morning and that loosens my leg up for the rest of the day.

“I just love the horse. He’s such a legend. He works with the babies in their progression and lots of young kids have started their careers riding him.

“If you go back and look at his trials, so many kids have had a go on him to get their licence. Tony is so good like that. He lets them send him around and it gets them on their way.”

Each morning he rides him, Horner marvels at the horse’s chronic lack of speed.

“It’s hard to tell people just how slow he is,” he said. “But he goes all day though and he jumps so safely.

“I’m not sure whether he’ll go much better for us. He’s so slow. Honestly, he’s the slowest horse ever. We were at Avoca the other day and he was coming down the straight with this two-year-old filly and it was such a sight. He was going about 14s (seconds to the furlong) and he was absolutely flat out.”

Despite his long non-winning sequence and the length of time it takes for him to complete each race, Undergroundfighter has won nearly $280,000 in stakes due to some treasured feature-race placings and the horse will figure strongly in the career highlight reel of Horner, who figures he has ridden him in 25 races, and of his younger brother Darryl.

“He was my little brother’s first ever jumps winner, he was my first ever ride in a Grand National and he ran third and he was my first ride in an (Grand) Annual and he ran fourth,” Horner said.

“He’s well-known around Ballarat already in the short time he’s been here. He’s just a legend. We just enjoy having him around.

“He’s worth his weight in gold.”

Rosolini said he had long known Horner’s love for his horse and was happy to pass it on to him and McDonald.

“He was sort of going to be retired but Lee wanted to use him to teach some of the young apprentices I suppose you’d call them,” Rosolini said.

“He wants to teach the young guys that are going for their jumps license. He’s such a safe jumper, I could ride him over the jumps.

“Lee also said to me that he’ll be riding him in his comeback race because he said ‘I know he’ll be good to me’.”

Horner confirmed his comeback would be timed to coincide the Undergroundfighter’s first jumps run for the stable.

“I’ll have my first ride back on him in a maiden hurdle or something like that,” he said.

“I just have faith in him and I’ll bob around on him and get around safe and that’ll start me off and get me back into it.”

Horner said he had hoped to return to riding earlier but his broken leg sustained in March is taking its time to heal and the delay put in doubt his immediate return as rider for outstanding ‘chaser Flying Agent.

“I kept putting a time-frame on it but it kept giving me a bit of gyp,” he said. “But I rode Undergroundfighter in my first school back today (Tuesday) and its coming along so I hope it will only be a few weeks.”