Horse Racing: Guineas trio grounded

Donna Logan-trained Mongolian Falcon was grounded at Christchurch Airport an extra day due to heavy fog. Photo/Trish Dunell

Three contenders for today'sGr.1 Sothys 44th New Zealand 2000 Guineas missed their flight to Christchurch on Thursday morning after pilots refused to let the horses board.

The Donna Logan and Chris Gibbs-trained pair of Mongolian Falcon and Wyndspelle and the Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained Jon Snow, as well as his New Zealand Cup-bound stablemate Maygrove, were not allowed to board the plane because of fog in Christchurch and could have been forced to wait 24 hours for another flight.

The cargo plane taking the horses south flies from Auckland to Christchurch and then on to Sydney. If fog was to prevent it landing in Christchurch the plane would be redirected straight to Sydney, where none of the horses were certified to land.

Fog had lifted by the time the plane arrived in Christchurch and it did land there on Thursday.

The two Baker-Forsman horses returned to Cambridge when they were not permitted to board the flight, while the two Logan-Gibbs gallopers headed to the Majestic Horse Transport base in Auckland.

Logan took the unusual step of getting both her horses certified for Australia in the wake of Thursday's missed flight to ensure her horses would fly, though there was rain forecast for Christchurch yesterday morning so the risk of fog was minimal.

"It's not what you want going into a Group One race," Logan said.

"The horses are fine - it's only us that's stressed. To me, it's a hell of a worry. It's not what you want to happen at all.

"I had it happen once before with Bally Duff. He was meant to race in the Group One two-year-old race in Brisbane [then known as the TJ Smith Classic] but the plane broke down and they couldn't get the parts, so we never got there."

The Logan and Gibbs-trained Mongolian Falcon is the $2.90 favourite for the 2000 Guineas, while stablemate Wyndspelle is on the fifth line of betting at $9.50.

"We're really pleased with the horses. They are absolutely flying, pardon the pun," Logan said.

Baker was unconcerned about the missed flight and didn't expect the travel delay to affect his pair.

"We've just got to hope the plane goes tomorrow," he said.

"Maygrove has travelled plenty before. We've just got to hope it doesn't affect Jon Snow, which I don't think it will. We're happy with them both and expect them to run well."

- NZ Racing Desk