Globe has been forced out of tomorrow's Cox Plate after an inspection by racing Victoria vets.
A breath of fresh air has blown through tomorrow’s A$6 million ($6.8m) Ladbrokes Cox Plate.
Not that it is good for the iconic race, but it was refreshing all the same.
The race, usually touted as the weight-for-age championship of Australasia, lost one of its speed influences when New Zealand-bred Globe was withdrawn by Racing Victoria (RV) vets on Thursday morning.
There is nothing seriously wrong with the last-start Might And Power Stakes winner, but in the cautious new world of big-time Victorian racing any discernible risk is enough to get your horse withdrawn, as the connections of Melbourne Cup favourite Sir Delius found out last week.
Sir Delius could have also been in the Cox Plate tomorrow and the great race would have been better with him and Globe in it.
But veterinarians aren’t paid to put fields together or market racing; they are paid to ensure the safety of horses, which in turn safeguards racing from shooting itself in the foot with a fatal racing injury in front of hundreds of thousands of people.
Racing accidents will still happen, as will catastrophic injuries in any high-impact sport, but negating them where possible is a good thing.
What was also good was the reaction of Globe’s trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent jnr.
Globe’s owners had paid a A$200,000 late entry fee to get into the Cox Plate but Price and Kent were realistic and supportive of the decision.
“We find we are usually on the same page as the vets,” Kent said.
“That horse, definitely, was not right. He was not right for two reasons
“One on the trot up. I know RV vets have called it, but there was absolutely no disagreement from myself.
“Whilst it is disappointing for the owners... the other side of that, you could multiply that disappointment by about 50 if you were to run that horse, see him go no good in the Cox Plate and exacerbate a small injury.
“It’s the correct decision. I was glad the decision was made. Absolutely, the horse should not run.”
Kent and Price could have made excuses or carried on like spoilt children, but they would not have got the vets’ decision reversed and they would have detracted from one of Australia’s great races.
But they didn’t, so Globe will head to the spelling paddock and punters will try to work out where the speed will come from in this Cox Plate.
Globe’s scratching meant defending champion Via Sistina moved in from $2.30 favouritism to $2.15 with the real chance she will start shorter tomorrow with few obvious rivals likely to take a big share of the punting dollar.
Taranaki trainer Raymond Connors isn’t getting too far ahead of himself with Melbourne Cup aspirant Trav.
Because unless the Auckland Cup winner goes a boomer at The Valley on Friday night he realises their Melbourne Cup dream may remain that.
Trav will be at long odds in the Ladbrokes Moonee Valley Gold Cup at 11.15pm today (NZ time) on the opening part of The Valley’s two meetings inside 24 hours for Cox Plate weekend.
Tonight’s 2500m race may not be Trav’s last chance to get into the Melbourne Cup at Flemington on November 4, but to Connors it feels like it.
“I think he was about 33rd in the rankings last time I looked,” Connors said.
“But horses will jump up after races like the Geelong Cup and of course others will pull out.
“But we can’t worry about whether he will get in the Cup or not, we can only concentrate on how well he is going.
“We are happy with him but we’d want to see him go well this week to be a realistic chance of starting in the Cup.”
Trav is one of only a few potential New Zealand-trained starters in the Melbourne Cup after former Horse of the Year Sharp N Smart pulled out this week to concentrate on domestic targets over the summer.
Mark Twain is still in Cup contention with next Wednesday’s Bendigo Cup his line-in-the-sand race.
“He is going well enough but we want him to show us on Wednesday he is ready for the Cup,” co-trainer Robert Wellwood said.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.