KEY POINTS:
When you read this Xcellent will be on his way back to Matamata.
The only decision left to be made around the what-if career of one of the best horses we'll see, is what he will do in retirement.
The late, great Canadian songwriter Dan Folgelberg summed up
horse racing beautifully in his tribute, Run For The Roses.
"It's the dream of a lifetime in a lifetime of dreams," goes one line.
Fogelberg was writing about the Kentucky Derby, but that line could apply to any great horse race or any great horse.
Like Xcellent.
He was the dream of a lifetime.
How it all went so tragically wrong when on the doorstep of international greatness will now be committed to the history books.
Time can distort memories and many great horses through the years have been essentially forgotten. Only a few have been immortalised.
Eventually Xcellent, in the wider sense, will join that former group. After all he won a Derby, but he didn't win a Cox Plate, or a Melbourne Cup, but those around him knew that, God willing, they were matters just waiting to happen.
The dreams of the Moroney stable and those of the horse's ownership syndicate exploded at the 200m of Saturday's Trentham Stakes when the supporting suspensory ligaments rising up from Xcellent's front fetlock ruptured badly and tore bone fragments from the joint.
There was to be no way back from this injury.
The Saturday night x-ray at Palmerston North's Massey University revealed massive damage.
"What we have to do now is work out a plan of action to get him to the point where he can be a normal, retired racehorse," said co-trainer Paul Moroney.
"He'll spend the next two months confined to his box, or a small space we have available to our place, then we'll carefully monitor the leg from there.
"He's comfortable now he's on pain killers and he'll be much happier at the Matamata stable than anywhere else - it's his home."
Australians might like beating the Kiwi horses on the racetrack, but they know class when they see it.
One Melbourne bookmaker called this writer yesterday morning and said: "What a tragedy. That's the best horse we never saw."
You know what he meant - Xcellent's the best horse we didn't get to see the best of.
Paul Moroney said he cannot believe the amount of messages of sympathy from all levels of the industry.
"Trainers, jockeys, owners, administrators, people I don't know.
"It shows that everyone took Xcellent to their hearts and that means an awful lot to us."
Longtime strapper Chrissy Clements, visibly upset yesterday, has put her hand up to claim Xcellent.
"There's also the horse show at Cambridge Lodge, where horses like Rough Habit perform. It's a bit early to be making too many decisions."
One decision the Moroney stable has to make is whether Saturday's $100,000 Wellesley Stakes winner Captain Fantastic will take his place in the $1 million Karaka Million at Ellerslie on Sunday.
"Pretty much we've decided he won't, because it'll mean three weekends in a row.
"He's got group two form now, which is important to us - probably as important as winning the million dollar race - because he's got a stallion's pedigree.
"We'll have a look at him at the track tomorrow morning and take him for a swim, but we've pretty much made up our minds he won't be running in the big race.
"We'll look at the group ones (Sires Produce races). His owners already have I Robot in that field, which we consider a chance."
