Australian Jockey Club vets insisted on inspecting Rising Romance on Thursday, but by then Logan was having doubts about continuing on with the mare's campaign.
"She was just not happy with herself. She went dull in the coat and had a sad attitude," she said yesterday.
"At this level over here you have to be 110 per cent to win and we'd have been going into Randwick tomorrow at 85 to 90 per cent and that's not good enough."
Rising Romance had 59kg clear topweight in the A$300,000 Chairman's Hcp and was to have been ridden by James McDonald.
"You can't go chasing your tail and pushing buttons in these circumstances, so the sensible thing was to send her home."
So Logan now has to rely on Volkstok'n'barrell in the A$2 million AJC Derby.
Continual showers in Sydney this week have made the classy New Zealander less of a chance and not because he may not manage what yesterday looked certain to be a track in the slow range.
The rain will turn the Derby into exactly what Logan was hoping to avoid - a tough 2400m slog. The 2000m of the Rosehill Guineas was perfect for Volkstok'n'barrell's style.
Every year, even on firmish tracks, the last 300m of the AJC Derby is a tough battle to the line where 3-year-olds have had the sprint run out of them over the first 2100m of the classic.
The conditions will lean much more in favour of New Zealand's other Derby representative, Mongolian Khan. The Derby winner from Ellerslie raced below his best when a well-beaten fifth in the Rosehill Guineas, but has apparently improved dramatically in the last week.
His Sydney trackwork rider, former jockey Danny Beasley, got off Mongolian Khan after a piece of work early this week and said it was the best work the colt had done since arriving in Sydney.
The 2400m on a testing track is perfect for Mongolian Khan, who will again be ridden by Opie Bosson.
The horse to beat is the Chris Waller-trained Victoria Derby winner Preferment. He stretched Volkstok'n'barrell's neck in the Rosehill Guineas and is going to be much better suited by the 2400m. Damien Oliver has the ride.
For all that conditions may not ideally suit Volkstok'n'barrell, Donna Logan knows she has a very fit and very happy 3-year-old.
"Craig Williams came out and rode him in a gallop on Tuesday and was over the moon with how he felt and James McDonald rode him yesterday morning and felt the same way."
It's been billed as Frazier vs Ali.
James McDonald pitched against the man most claim to be the world's finest jockey, Brazilian superstar Joao Moreira, who has just arrived in Australia.
JMac vs Magic Joe at Randwick this afternoon as The Championships gets under way in the heart of the Sydney autumn carnival.
James McDonald hogged all headlines when he rode five winners last Saturday, including the BMW victor Hartnell.
But it's Moreira who they bill as the man that can steal the show and he rarely fails to deliver on that promise.
The pair were to have faced off in every one of the 10 races this afternoon, but McDonald is left without a mount in Race 3, the Chairman's with the withdrawal of Ruakaka mare Rising Romance.
They have differing styles - McDonald can get busy on his mounts when they need it and is a great horse motivator.
Moreira tends to prefer to allow his mounts to glide - he is clearly doing quite a lot on his mounts when it appears he's doing little.
For all the magnificent horsemanship of McDonald and Moreira, results come down to the class of their mounts and here McDonald holds a strong hand - he is stable rider for the all-powerful Godolphin team, prepared by John O'Shea.
Five of McDonald's nine mounts are Godolphin horses from a stable that has totally dominated lately.
Moreira rides five for Chris Waller's stable, two for Gai Waterhouse and will handle Omeros for John Sargent in the Derby, in which he will clash with McDonald on Tulloch Stakes winner Hauraki.
