Kelt Capital Stakes aspirant Waitoki Dream is dead after suffering a suspected internal haemorrhage in training.
The 6-year-old Pentire gelding, who finished third in last year's Kelt, had resumed racing last weekend at Ruakaka.
Senior co-trainer Kevin Cullen is at a loss to explain why Waitoki Dream was struck downafter pulling up from pacework on Thursday morning.
"He basically just dropped dead," said the Te Aroha trainer. "He had just finished his pacework, and it wasn't as if it was strenuous or anything.
"We think he must have suffered an internal haemorrhage, but why or how you wouldn't know.
"I had been a bit disappointed with his run at Ruakaka [fourth of four] and he had a couple of days off afterwards, but there was nothing obviously wrong with him."
Waitoki Dream, who was owned by Te Aroha farming couple Jim and Kay Shallue, won six of his 44 starts and $330,000. Other notable performances besides his Kelt placing behind Xcellent and Distinctly Secret were wins in the $100,000 New Zealand Bloodstock 3-Year-Old Classique at Tauranga and the Mercedes Balmerino Prelude at Ellerslie.
He also finished fourth in the 2003 Mercedes Derby, second twice in the Lindauer Grandeur Stakes, second in the Waikato Guineas, and third in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Waikato Gold Cup.
"You don't get horses like him too often and he's a big loss to us and his owners," said Cullen, who trains a small team in partnership with his daughter-in-law Sharlene.
