WELLINGTON - The Message would have made the Caulfield Cup field had he been from the stable of famous Australian trainer Bart Cummings, says New Zealand trainer John Ralph.
The Victoria Amateur Turf Club committee had the discretion to elevate The Message, a group one winner, into the field of 18 but chose not to.
The Message was 20th equal in the order of entry for the $A2 million ($2.7 million) race but when the field was announced on Tuesday he was basically listed 21st.
He was the last of the race's three emergencies.
The club has used its discretion in recent years to elevate runners ahead of their qualifying status.
Ralph believed one of the reasons The Message was not promoted was because "my name's not Bart Cummings."
He had no doubt that the outcome would have been different had The Message been Cummings' horse.
"I'd bet my boots he would have got in," he said.
Ralph said The Message had the form to warrant inclusion. The seven-year-old gelding has been in the best form of his career this year with five wins and a second from his previous eight starts.
Two of the wins were at group race level, including New Zealand's premier spring weight-for-age race, the $250,000 Kelt Capital Stakes (2040m) at Hastings on September 30 at his latest start.
"I'm pretty upset about it, but what can you do?" said Ralph.
"The horse isn't in and it's no use getting too wild about it."
Ralph said he could not fathom the horse's at least becoming the first emergency.
"Maybe I wouldn't have felt so bad if we were the first emergency.
"But to be the third, that's more or less saying we don't think much of your horse."
Ralph said the only chance of there being three scratchings from the body of the field to allow The Message a start was the arrival of a storm, which he said had been predicted as a possibility.
As an alternative to the Caulfield Cup, the horse has also been entered for the group three $A100,000 Coongy Handicap (2000m) on the same Caulfield programme.
Ralph hoped The Message would win the Coongy, to prove what a top chance he would have been in the Caulfield Cup.
"Wouldn't we love to. He's in terrific order ... he's as bright as a button.
"All we can hope is we have got him right and it would pay to put a dollar on him."
The main target for The Message now becomes the $A2 million Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley the following Saturday, but Ralph still views the Caulfield Cup as a lost opportunity.
He said the horse would be required to carry 59kg under the weight-for-age scale of the Cox Plate but was weighted at just 50.5kg in the Caulfield Cup.
- NZPA
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