Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Racing narrowly escaped a second spring carnival nightmare on Saturday after leading jockey Harry Coffey suffered a suspected broken collar bone in a scary mid-race fall.
The injury is likely to rule the 31-year-old father of one out of Tuesday’s $10.2 million Melbourne Cup.
The popular 2024 Caulfield Cup-winning hoop was left cradling his arm in agony when his mount Pondalowie crashed to the Flemington turf in the group 1 Empire Rose Stakes, the second last race on Derby Day.
The six-year-old mare was able to clamber to her feet, and was safely led back to the mounting yard by a clerk-of-the-course.
But Coffey, a cystic fibrosis sufferer who has been an ambassador for charities supporting the debilitating illness, was loaded into an ambulance and taken to hospital for scans.
He was booked to ride lightweight Shockletz, trained by Ciaron Maher, in Tuesday’s Cup.
The near miss followed a horse death in the Caulfield Cup a fortnight ago when Ohope Wins had to be put down in the home straight.
It was a day of high drama at Flemington in the build up to this year’s race that stops the nation.
Trainer Nick Ryan was charged with possessing syringes of an EPO-like substance on Saturday morning, resulting in his two Derby Day runners being scratched.
Earlier, news broke that Irish import Defiantly had failed a vet test on Saturday morning because of a slightly bruised heel.
The scratching again highlighted long-standing criticism of no emergencies in the Melbourne Cup field.
Connections were confident the Joseph O’Brien-trained Defiantly would be fully recovered by Tuesday.
But all runners have to be passed fit to run by final acceptances on Derby Day because of an antiquated system that can only cope with 24 horses. The TAB has long flagged an intention to update its technology, but has been deterred by prohibitive costs.
Having emergencies beyond the final 24 would allow Defiantly to be named in the field before being subject to a final vet test on Tuesday morning. If it failed, it could be replaced.
“My understanding is that he would be OK tomorrow [Sunday], he’s improved out of sight,” part-owner Jamie Lovett, of Australian Bloodstock, told this masthead on Saturday morning.
“But, obviously, they have not deemed him fit to race today [Saturday], and by virtue of that they won’t accept the nomination.
“We’ve got owners on the tarmac in New Zealand. It’s just so disappointing for them. A lot of these owners have never had a runner at Flemington, let alone a Melbourne Cup.”
The enforced withdrawal elevated another Joseph O’Brien stayer, Kizlyar, into the final field, while internationals Wine Dark Sea and Enfjaar both passed inspections on Saturday morning.
The scratching of Defiantly follows the withdrawal of Maher’s Saint George on Thursday after leg scans showed it was at “heightened risk of injury”.
O’Brien, a two-time winner of the Cup with Rekindling and Twilight Payment, has five horses in Tuesday’s race – Sons And Lovers, Trustyourinstinct, Goodie Two Shoes, James J Braddock and Kizlyar.
But he still can’t match the firepower of Ciaron Maher, who has seven runners – Middle Earth, Point Of Law, Juja Kibo, Mr Monaco, Royal Supremacy, Shockletz and Zahrann.
Defiantly is part-owned by media identities Yvonne Sampson and her husband Chris O’Keefe, while dozens of owners and their friends and families were said to be devastated to have travelled to Melbourne, only to be scratched at the 11th hour.
The five-year-old gelding was purchased by Australian Bloodstock on behalf of a large ownership group earlier in the year with the dream of running in the Cup.
He set European racing alight in the past six months by adopting daring catch-me-if-you can tactics and was expected to turn Tuesday’s 3200m race at Flemington into a gruelling test of stamina that would suit the Europeans.
“He’s got a little stone bruise on the back of heel, so they [the O’Brien stable} were very transparent with Racing Victoria and the [stables] vets told them that’s why we took his shoe off so they could put a little poultice on it,” Lovett said.
“It improved out of sight, and we just thought we were fine this morning. If we had have left the shoe on, he would have trotted up fine. It’s disappointing.”
O’Brien’s racing planner Kevin Blake told this masthead on Friday that stable staff were confident Defiantly would be OK. The horse had passed all leg scans.
O’Brien was heading to Australia on a tight schedule from the US Breeders Cup meeting – flying from Lexington to Dallas, and then Dallas to Sydney, and then Sydney to Melbourne to arrive on Monday.
An inquiry into the Ryan case has been delayed until Monday. The trainer has reserved his plea.
Stewards released a statement saying they had raided Ryan’s stables on Saturday morning and allegedly found two syringes of Darbepoetin Alfa in the glove box of his car.
Darbepoetin Alfa is a stimulating agent that mimics a natural hormone and is closely related to natural erythropoietin (EPO).
They ordered that his two Derby Day runners – Doubt Time and Anglais – be scratched.
The inquiry has been suspended until Monday. Ryan has reserved his plea.
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